


Friday I'm in Love

by perfectdagger (sincerelyste)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Basically Harry is a drama queen full of insecurity, Blowjob and Handjob, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, but it's fluffy and sweet and sappy, if you blink you might miss it, there are two mentions of zayn, with a very cute and happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-15
Updated: 2016-07-15
Packaged: 2018-07-23 20:52:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 29,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7479573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sincerelyste/pseuds/perfectdagger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>It has a pattern, Harry has noticed.</i><br/><i>It’s not that he has been observing the guy who regularly comes to the coffee shop for the past few weeks; but he totally has.</i><br/><i>It’s also not Harry’s fault that he’s infatuated with the guy who apparently follows a very repetitive schedule.</i><br/><br/>Or the one where Harry works at the coffee shop and Louis goes there almost every day and Harry is head over heels for him, making his love life look like a The Cure song.<br/><br/>Inspired by Friday I’m in Love by The Cure (obviously).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friday I'm in Love

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Star, Lils and Yasmin for listening to my ideas about the story :)

It has a pattern, Harry has noticed.

It’s not that he has been observing the guy who regularly comes to the coffee shop for the past few weeks; but he totally has.

Niall has already given him shit for it, always elbowing him whenever the guy would walk through the doors and making stupid comments when they are back at their dorm about how Harry always has a weird grin on his face every time the guy comes to the till.

Harry can’t even defend himself, because he knows how stupid he is when he looks at Louis – Louis, that’s the boy’s name, Harry has learned after being the one to write his name on his order for weeks now.

Harry has seen many beautiful people in his life, he has had his share of a few good-looking affairs, he won’t lie, but the first time he saw Louis entering the shop, it was almost like a cinematic scene. He saw him fixing his fringe with delicate fingers over his forehead; he saw him take off his aviators Ray-Bans and glance over the counter with shining blue eyes; he saw him open a smile, which, as small as it was, made the corner of his eyes crinkle.

Harry never understood why he was so endeared by that, but as he watched the boy come closer to him, ask for a simple black coffee, pay and leave the shop, he was sure he could look at him for hours, without caring what would come around.

It’s not Harry’s fault that, by his surprise – or luck or fate or whatever – the boy would return the next day not only for a quick coffee, and that he would be able to stare at him, as discreet as he could (Niall would totally tell that Harry could not be discreet if his life depended on it, but Niall was always taking the piss out of him, so it didn’t count), the whole afternoon (even though he had company. It was fine. Harry was totally fine with that) and the next and several other times he kept coming to the shop, making a habit out of it.

It’s also not Harry’s fault that he’s infatuated with the guy who apparently follows a very repetitive schedule.

On Mondays, as the first one he had appeared, he would only stop by and have a cup of coffee to go.

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, he would bring along a friend, that same friend from the second day (well, that’s what Harry hoped the other guy would be. Not that it actually mattered. It shouldn’t matter, right?) and they would spend the afternoon studying on their laptops and drinking coffee and tea – Harry has learned that the blue-eyed one prefers to have tea while studying than having the usual coffee as he does on Mondays – and having scones, muffins, brownies or cupcakes throughout the 3-4 hours they stay at the coffee shop.

On Thursdays… well, Thursdays were horrible. Thursdays are hell day for Harry, because he doesn’t work. It’s the day he has his field classes, so he gets the day off from work and he doesn’t see Louis. He doesn’t even know if he goes to the shop since Niall gets the day off too and he isn’t crazy (not enough, at least, he still has some sanity and dignity left, he believes) to ask other coworkers to check if the small boy with cheekbones and blue eyes goes to the shop and what he does there.

Thursdays are hell day because Harry wishes he could stop thinking about Louis, caring about him, but when he is with his camera in hand outside, snapping shots of beautiful sunflowers or open green fields, he likes to imagine that the guy from the coffee shop is in the background of his photos. Thursdays are the worst, really.

But Fridays… oh, Fridays. Fridays are the best days. Harry has always loved Fridays.

Back at home, Fridays always meant the last day of school before the weekend, when he would finally take a rest from his homework and go play footie with his friends in the fields around town or take a trip with his mum and sister to London for shopping.

At Uni, Fridays always meant a break from his tiresome classes and from his shifts at the coffee shop, so on the weekends he could relax with Niall at their dorm, playing FIFA or binge-watching their favorite show; or sometimes he would take a trip back to his mum as he had promised he would do every now and then just so she wouldn’t complain that she was losing her little boy to the big city.

But now, Harry has other reasons to love Fridays even more. One reason, more specifically. Fridays are the days Louis comes to the coffee shop, sits at a table, alone – no friend this time, Fridays are Louis’ days only – and stays there on his laptop most of the afternoon, studying or doing whatever it is that he does there, and Harry is able to just watch him and actually admire him from a distance.

Harry could literally do that all day; he has already convinced himself about that. Niall still tells him that he is losing his mind, but Harry just decided he'd better not pay attention to Niall’s mean comments, because he really doesn’t get what Harry feels every time he looks at Louis. If he thinks about it, Harry doesn’t get it either.

And the memories of Fridays watching Louis is what helps Harry go through the weekend. They are sufferable, if he is being honest, because that would be two whole days without seeing Louis. That is even worse than Thursdays, but he reckons that at least he doesn’t have to keep wondering during the weekend if Louis is going to the coffee shop, because he guesses that as most of the students, he’d be doing anything else than spending his time at a place that would remind him of books and lectures to study. So he is pretty sure Louis wouldn’t be on campus and would be doing other things, living his life as a normal person, as one should, and not moping around because he is longing and dying to see one specific person.

But it is painful nonetheless, because the weekends would always drag on, taking too long to pass, feeling like an eternity until it’s finally Monday and he is able to see Louis entering the shop once more.

And there Harry is again, another Monday, during his early shift at the coffee shop, mindlessly helping Niall clean the coffee machines as he dares to look at the clock hanging on the wall every now and then to check the time.

“You know he’s coming in, in like, 10 minutes, don’t you?” Niall clears his throat, looking at Harry with a mocking stare.

“What?” Harry tries to pretend he didn’t understand what Niall is saying, because clearly he doesn’t have the exact time Louis comes to the shop at the back of his head.

“Oh, will ya stop pretending you didn’t memorize his schedule already? It’s Monday and every fucking Monday he comes into the shop at freaking 8 am like it’s a religious ceremony or whatever and every fucking time you start to act like a fucking moron.”

“I don’t even–”

“It’s getting embarrassing, really, Haz,” Niall interrupts him, tossing the mopping cloth at his chest. “And you’re not getting away this time. It’s your turn at the till. I’m done covering it for you.” He leaves through the back door, leaving Harry with his mouth hanging open at an attempt to answer back.

He knows he is being ridiculous, that he is clearly losing his mind, Niall has told him that a thousand times, teasing him about it, but he never thought it was actually bothering Niall to the point that he would leave Harry on his own with that.

He looks down at the cloth in his hands and sighs deeply. He needs to get a grip, seriously.

He is finishing cleaning the counter top a few minutes later when he hears the bell at the door ringing as to indicate that someone has entered the shop. He shoots a look at the clock one more time, seeing it’s already 8 am and he wishes he could tell that it is any other ordinary costumer coming inside, but he feels his stomach swirl as he turns around and sees a pair of Ray-Ban glasses coming closer to the till.

He swallows dryly and walks to the till from behind the counter as he sees a little twitch on Louis’ lips as he takes off his sunglasses.

“Morning.” A pair of blue eyes are staring directly at him and Harry thinks he might have lost the ability to speak because he only stares and he might have spent an hour only looking without saying anything until he hears Louis coughing slightly, making him come back to reality. Pathetic, really.

“I'm sorry, I– what would your order be?” Harry tries as much as he can to sound coherent, but he feels like he’s just making a fool of himself. If his boss were around to watch him right now, he’s pretty sure he would be fired.

“I’ll have a tall americano to go, please,” Louis answers in a bit, not minding, or at least trying not to look like he minded Harry being a disaster in front of him.

“Yeah, sure.” Harry types in the code of the order in the till without looking at Louis. He doesn’t want to get dumbstruck again. But he feels Louis carefully watching him as he drums his fingers on the counter. If Harry looked up right now, he’s sure Louis would have a stupid smile on his face. Harry wants to die right there and then.

“That’ll be two fifty.” Harry briefly looks up and right, yeah, there it is that stupid smile as Louis hands him the money.

Harry collects it trying not to let Louis’ fingers linger on his, deposits it in cash register drawer, and turns around, fetching a cup and heading to the coffee machine to fill it up.

He never thought one minute would take so long as he watches the coffee pouring down and filling up the cup. He puts the lid on the cup, trying to ignore his shaking hands. What’s up with that, really?

He turns around and finds Louis looking at him with a curious look, one brow arched.

“Here you go.” He hands Louis his cup and Louis takes it, and Harry thinks he didn’t purposely let his fingers brush over Harry’s for a moment.

“You didn’t ask,” that’s all Louis says as he holds his cup close to him, without taking his eyes off Harry.

“I’m sorry?” Harry asks, because really, what? What’s that supposed to mean? What didn’t he ask Louis? What could he possibly have asked?

“My name.” Louis' lips turn into a knowing smile and Harry wants to disappear from the face of the earth.

“I…” He’s tongue-tied. All thoughts from his brain have vanished and he, more than anything, wants to be like his thoughts and disappear.

“And it’s not like you don’t know my name, because, well, you’ve been taking my order with that Irish guy every time I come here, but still...” The tone in his voice is teasing and Harry wonders what’s that supposed to mean, once again.

Does Louis know Harry simply stands by Niall’s side when he is ordering so that he can get a closer glimpse of Louis and write down his name on the cup in a perfect handwriting? Oh well, he’s totally fucked then.

He tries to say something, but nothing leaves his mouth, only a weird sound that he’s sure would mean something if he talked to whales, which makes Louis chuckle.

“That’s ok, _Harold,_ ” Louis says, winking, and pointing at Harry’s nametag on his apron.

Harry blinks twice before he notices he finally managed to speak again

“It’s Harry.”

“Oh, okay then, _Harry,_ ” Louis nods, stepping back, already making his way towards the door of the coffee shop. “See you around. I gotta run, late for class and all. Thanks for the coffee.” He turns around and as he’s reaching for the doorknob to open the door and finally exit, Harry’s mouth is opening again, before he can even register the words that are leaving it.

“Bye, Louis.” He swallows as he sees Louis turning his head, shooting him a playful smile and putting on his Ray-Bans again before finally stepping outside.

Harry sees the door closing and he lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He closes his eyes and he’s happy there isn’t any cutlery around him because if there was, he would already be trying to stab himself with something.

He feels a hand on his shoulder and when he opens his eyes and turns his head, he finds Niall standing beside him, with a stupid grin on his face.

“That could’ve been a lot worse,” the blondish boy says, patting Harry’s shoulder.

“Oh, will you shut it,” he slaps Niall’s hand from his shoulder. “Just for the record, as if you already didn’t know it, I fucking hate you.” He turns on his heels and heads to the coffee machine to clean it even though he didn’t spill any coffee while preparing Louis’ order.

“You’ll thank me later, you’ll see. You’d never talk to him if it wasn’t for me!”

“As if that was anything close to talking. Fucking hell, Niall. I’m a mess, aren’t I?

“Only when you’re close to a certain blue-eyed bloke. Otherwise, you’re a fairly ok human being.” Niall leans back on the counter, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I fucking hate you!” Harry buffs and turns around, smacking Niall on the head.

“Love you too, babe.” Niall chuckles.

“You’re taking the next shift at the till, just so you know. You own me,” Harry nags as he steps through the back door, not even waiting for Niall to complain. Niall knows better. But that doesn’t mean he’ll leave it at that once they’re back at their dorm later.

*

After his morning lecture the next day, Harry is back at the coffee shop and Niall is already sending him worrying looks on the other side of the counter. Harry rolls his eyes before stepping closer.

“Don’t you start,” he grumbles, bumping him with his hips.

“I didn’t even say anything.” Niall throws his arms in the air as if surrendering.

“But you were going to. And don’t you dare do what you did to me yesterday. I’ve suffered enough and I’m sure you don’t want to hear me complaining to you all night again.”

“Yes, I’ll pass that, thank you very much. But you see, you know how on Tuesdays and Wednesdays he always comes with his mate and it’s usually him and not Louis who makes their order, so I’d say you’re safe today. And no,” Niall almost shoves his index finger on Harry’s face, making a pointed look at Harry’s pouty lips, “I think I’ve taken more shifts at the cash register covering it up for you and your arse in these past few weeks than I’ve ever done since I started working here. So yeah, stop being a twat and man up and do your work properly.” Niall’s tone is serious and Harry sighs deeply.

He knows he’s being a baby because of this. He knows it’s not logical. He’s never been like that, for anyone. And it’s not that he’s afraid of talking to Louis. He’s just afraid that, just like it happened yesterday, he’ll act like a fool and Louis will think he’s a complete idiot.

“Fine,” he complains and closes his eyes, taking a deep breath.

“Good boy.” Niall pats his back as he gives Harry space to take over the till. “Now this baby is all yours and, please, get a grip, because your favorite costumers are already coming inside.” He indicates with his head towards the entrance as two figures approach the door, making the bell ring as they swing it open.

Harry tries to compose himself, but his legs almost give out when he sees Louis looking at the till and saying something that he can’t hear to the guy next to him and then starts making his way towards him as the other guy goes take their usual table.

“Shit,” he murmurs to himself. Of fucking course Louis would come make the order now that Harry is here. He’ll probably murder Niall in his sleep for saying that Harry would be safe today.

“Well hello there, Harold,” Louis says as he takes off his Ray-Bans and tucks it on the collar of his shirt.

“Harry. It’s- It's Harry.” Harry almost chokes and he clears his throat as he sees Louis’ lips curving in a smile.

“Oh yeah, right. My bad, it’s just that I’ve always thought it was short for Harold.”

“You’ve always…?” Harry says, more asking, because until yesterday he never thought Louis knew his name. Has Louis been paying attention to him the same way he has been paying attention to him? Could that be it?

For a moment, he sees that Louis’ face goes blank but in a second later, it’s back to a smile and he chuckles.

“You know, usually Harry is always a nickname, like, I don’t know, for Henry or Harold…”

“Oh, right.” Harry shakes his head, a little disappointed, but trying not to let it show. Right, it’s not like Louis would pay attention to him anyway. “But no, in my case it’s just Harry.”

“Ok. Just Harry, then.” Louis keeps a smile on his face and Harry can’t understand how it can feel like it’s lighting up the whole place and how he wants to touch the little wrinkles that are forming on the corner of Louis’ eyes. He’s mesmerized by those.

“Er,” he speaks again as he realizes that he is staring again and Louis just keeps smiling, not saying a word, “so, what would you like today?” He looks down at the keyboard on the till trying to avoid Louis’ gaze on him.

“Oh, I’ll take a large cappuccino for my friend over there and I’ll take…”

“Tea,” Harry says under his breath and he wasn’t expecting Louis to catch it when he hears him saying “yes, exactly” in return. Harry looks up briefly, biting his bottom lip on the corner as he sees Louis actually beaming at him.

Harry doesn’t believe it’s possible to be alive right now as he just felt his heart stop beating for a moment.

“And I’ll take half dozen chocolate brownies too.” Louis turns his head quickly back to where the other guy is and Harry follows, seeing that the guy is making an impatient face at him. Louis murmurs something to himself that Harry couldn’t make what it was before turning his attention to him again. “Yeah, that will be it, for now,” he finishes.

“Right, so I’ll just leave your tab open and you pay when you’re ready to leave.” Harry tries to sound as professional as he can, trying to get his heartbeats on track again.

“That will do, thanks.” Louis nods and Harry knows he should be going and prepare his order, but Louis doesn’t move either and they just keep staring at each other, until Harry hears someone coughing behind him and he snaps his neck back to see Niall looking at him with one brow almost in the middle of his forehead.

“No problem. I’ll take your order to your table soon.” He tries to recompose himself and smile, but he knows he looks just like an awkward twat, which makes Louis shake his head and say a “thanks” before heading to his table.

“Honestly, why don’t you just jump on him and get this over with already?” Niall asks as Harry passes through him with two cups in hand, roughly tossing one at his chest.

“Shut up and go make a cappuccino, please.”

“Oh, so you’re taking care of his tea then? Add a little bit of love potion in it so you can be in love together.” Niall laughs as he heads to the coffee machine.

“I swear to God, Niall.” Harry shakes his head, trying to sound serious but, really, he’s controlling himself not to let a huge smile take over his face.

*

As it turns out, Tuesday wasn’t that bad. Harry managed to keep himself composed throughout his shift. He even served Louis and his friend twice and Niall didn’t tease him even if he found him looking at Louis’ table a few times – Niall swears it was more like fifty times, but Harry will deny with his entire soul that he didn’t look at him more than five.

He didn’t even have to make his nightly rant to Niall, as Niall had given him a free pass since he actually behaved well considering that he for once talked to Louis, even with as much stuttering and longing stares as there were.

And as it turns out, Wednesday is treating Harry well so far, too. When Louis came to the cash register earlier, Harry took his order without making a fool of himself like the day before, managing to smile friendly at him and not stuttering. He can consider this a victory, if he thinks about it.

Niall elbows him on the rib as he walks by him behind the counter making him divert his gaze from Louis to him.

“What?” He asks, confused.

“Staring for more than five minutes,” Niall simply replies as he goes to the till to take the next costumer’s order.

“I wasn’t…” Harry shakes his head as he darts a look back at Louis quickly, only to notice that Louis was looking back at him. Louis nods in his direction, taking a sip from his tea and then goes back to look at his laptop.

Harry actually notices that Louis’ friend kicks him under the table and Louis looks up at him with his brows furrowed and says “what the fuck?” back. The boy in front of him only shakes his head to reply with what Harry understood as a “so obvious”, and he quickly turns his head to avoid making eye contact with Louis again as he sees him looking his way one more time.

He passes behind Niall to take a cup in his hand and asks the costumer on the other side of the counter her name as he writes it down on the cup.

“Am I that obvious?” He asks Niall as he fills the cup with a latte, trying not to sound so self-aware of his awkwardness.

“Oh, you couldn’t be more if you tried.” Niall laughs as he looks back at the till and takes the girl’s money.

Harry feels his cheeks getting warmer and he shakes his head. He probably needs some kind of psychological help.

When Harry returns to hand her the cup, he sees that Louis and the other boy are in line behind her.

When the girl leaves, Harry freezes a little noticing that Louis is standing a little bit behind and the short dark-haired boy is the one talking to Niall at the till, paying their tab.

“Thanks, Niall. See you in class tomorrow!” The boy waves and actually sends a discreet nod at Harry, who takes a second longer to actually nod back as he sees Louis smiling at him when he hands the other boy his backpack.

“See ya, Liam!” Niall shouts back and waves to both of them as they turn around and leave the shop.

“Do you know him?” Harry asks, a little perplexed.

“Who? Liam? Yeah, we take the business class on Thursdays together.”

Harry frowns. “You never told me that.”

“Was I supposed to? If I remember correctly, you have an obsession with his mate, not with him.”

“I’m not obses–” Harry tries to argue, but Niall stops him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah, right. Keep telling yourself that and you’re gonna go far, kid,” Niall chuckles. “No, but seriously, relax, they are only mates, as far as I’m concerned Liam has a girlfriend.”

“And why are you telling me this?” Harry arches one brow.

“Because I know that inside this little curly head of yours you’ve wondered if they were more than friends…” Harry opens his mouth to refute but Niall cuts him off, taking his hand from his shoulder and lifting his finger as to shut him up and continues to talk. “If I had noticed Liam and Louis were more than friends, I would’ve told you because worse than having you moping because of a guy who could be yours but you’re too shy to ask him out, would be me letting you mope because of a boy that’s taken. So yeah, as far as I’m concerned too, Louis is free like a bird for you. You’re the one chickening out because he is just as much into you as you’re into him. I don’t know how you can be so oblivious when you’re the one who keeps looking at him the entire day, Christ.”

Harry tries to find what to say back to Niall but he’s at a loss of words. He undermines Niall’s capacity of being such a perceptive person sometimes. It’s both a blessing and a curse if he admits it, because, yeah, if it wasn’t for Niall saying what’s in front of him when he’s unable to see it, Harry would be lost, but also, fuck Niall for actually making him wonder if he actually has a real chance with Louis.

And those thoughts come at an awful time as he knows the next day is Thursday and he’ll keep thinking about Louis all day and moreover, he’ll be thinking if he’ll ever have the guts to take a shot at even trying to flirt with Louis properly now.

Fuck Niall, seriously. Today might be the day that he’s going to murder him in his sleep.

*

As much as Harry wants to convince himself that the day went as smoothly as he wanted it to be, he can’t deny that his teacher actually calling his attention for not taking the pictures of the class’ subject properly was one of the worse things that had happened to him all semester.

His head was somewhere else all day. And it wasn’t that he didn’t like taking pictures of dead nature, but he really couldn’t focus on actually finding them at the park the teacher had select as the place for their class that Thursday afternoon.

He arrived at their dorm frustrated, flopping on the couch on their small living room and getting his laptop to download the pictures from his camera and actually take a proper look at them to see if any of the photos he took earlier would be of any use for his final project.

As he’s going through them, he hears the sound of the door opening and he shoots a look at it, seeing Niall stepping inside.

“Oh, good, you’re here already.” Niall exhales deeply.

“Yeah.” Harry goes back to looking at his laptop, pressing the delete button as he sees another picture of plain green grass on the screen.

“So, hm, we’ll have company in a few minutes,” Niall says throwing his bag on his bed in the room across from Harry.

“God, Niall, please, you know you can’t bring girls here on Thursdays night.” Harry’s tone is already getting annoyed at the thought of having to deal with one of Niall’s flings.

“No no, it’s not a girl, Jesus. I wish it was girl, you wish it was too.”

“What are you talking about, Ni?” Harry shoots him a look from above the laptop to see Niall scratching the back of his neck with one hand and biting his other thumbnail.

“You know how I told you that Liam’s in my business class yesterday?”

“Yes…” Harry lowers the lid of the laptop to take a proper look at Niall.

“Yeah, funny thing. We got paired up to do a project today and he’s coming here in a few minutes so we can start it.”

“What?” Harry swears he didn’t mean to sound so alarmed as he did.

“No problem with you, right?” Niall chews on the inside of his cheeks, a concerning look on his face as he watches Harry.

“Well, no, I guess, but… why him, why here and why are you nervous for telling me this?”

Niall laughs softly. “Ok, so to answer the first question you’d have to ask our teacher why he thought it was funny to pair us together just because both our middle names is James. To the second question, I just offered it because I’m too lazy to walk to his dorm or to the library or to any other place and he accepted it so, Nialler wins. Now to the third question… because it’s him, you know, he’s Louis’ friend and I don’t know...” Niall walks slowly to sit next to Harry, carefully.

“And you think I’m gonna prey on him for being friends with Louis? Hunt him down? Kill him? Or what? Niall, I know I look like a crazy person, but I’m not that crazy.”

“God, no, that’s not what I’m saying, although those were actual valid concerns,” he jokes but cuts it short as he sees the unamused look on Harry’s face. “Sorry, but, no, I just thought you’d find it awkward.”

“It would be awkward if Louis was the one you were pairing up with and bringing home, because then you’d know that the minute he’s left, I’d murder you in your sleep.”

“See, the murdering thing is really up for debate here.”

“ _Niall!_ ” Harry gives him a serious look.

“Sorry, mate,” Niall shrugs and pats Harry on the knee. “Ok, so it’s fine, right?”

“Yeah, no problem. I guess I’ll just head to my room then.” He gets up, taking his bag in one hand and his laptop in the other and as he’s entering his room, he hears the knock on the door.

It’s not that Harry doesn’t want to see Liam. It’s just that he’d rather leave him and Niall to do their work alone while he still tries to find any picture that he could use for his project, but he didn’t plan on actually spending the next hour and half locked inside his room.

When he finally emerges from it to take a glass of water, he finds Niall and Liam on the couch, books scattered around on the floor while both of them hold their video game controllers in hand.

Harry clears his throat as he walks past them to go to the small kitchen. “Hm, hi.”

“Oh, hi. Harry, innit?” Liam looks up from the TV and smiles sympathetically at Harry.

“Yeah. Liam, right?” He opens the fridge and takes the bottle of water as he gets a glass from the cupboard.

“Nice for the both of you to get acquainted with each other, but now, Liam, if you don’t want to suffer a colossal loss, you’d better pay attention to the game,” Niall hisses without taking his eyes from the TV.

“Aren’t you two supposed to be studying or doing a project?” Harry asks after taking a sip of water.

“Oh yeah, we did, for the first hour and then Niall suggested we’d take a break,” Liam answers without looking back at Harry now.

“I don’t mean to interfere in your studying methods, but really, you shouldn’t give in to Niall and his FIFA’s breaks. You’ll never get anything done.” Harry walks back to the living room area as he sits on the arm of the couch beside Niall.

“It’s therapeutic, young Harold. You have no idea how much reading can make your head fuzzy. You wouldn’t know that, since you don’t have to read any books as your classes only require you to take pictures,” Niall says as he knits his brows in a concentrated look, trying to make a pass with his player.

“What? That’s not even true. I have to read plenty of stuff too,” Harry replies, a little offended.

“So, you take Photography?” Liam asks, earnest.

“Yes.”

“Cool! Oh shit!” Liam curses as he sees his goalie missing the spot where Niall’s player shoots at the goal to score.

“Hell yeah, Nialler scores again!” Niall shouts, throwing his fist in the air.

“So, you take business management, too?” Harry asks turning to Liam to see him looking a little disappointed at his own video gaming skills.

“Oh no, well, I’m taking music production classes and I got interested in music management too, so I took some businesses classes as credits.”

Harry nods, showing interest. He actually has a question in the back of his mind, but he knows he’ll look like a crazy person if he just brings Louis out of nowhere into the conversation.

“I think I should be going,” Liam says as he sees that he lost the game. Niall is actually making a weird celebratory dance as he stands up to turn off the console. “Is it ok? I know we barely started the project, but...” He stands up, already gathering his books.

“Oh, no problem. We can continue another time. We still have time to finish it.”

“Yeah, right. So, I guess I’ll see you… oh, you coming tomorrow, then?” Liam hangs his backpack on his shoulder as he looks from Niall to Harry.

“I–, yes. I guess so, yep.” Niall turns to look at Harry, who is a little confused about what they are talking about and why Niall seems like he’s gonna start to panic any time now. “Haz, Liam asked if we’d like to head to the pub with him, er, them tomorrow night after we finish our shift at the coffee shop.”

“Them?” Harry is still trying to process when that conversation included him and why Liam and whoever else – Harry doesn’t want to think it’s Liam and Louis. Liam must have a bunch of other friends, of course – would want him to join them.

“Yeah, me and my mate Louis? You know him, from the coffee shop?” Liam asks as nonchalantly as he can sound.

“Him? Oh, yes. I know, hm, him.” Harry is starting to feel his legs getting weaker. They are only talking about Louis, for fuck’s sake, Harry needs to learn how to calm down.

“We always go to the pub near the coffee shop, so I just thought it’d be cool for us to hang out? Only if you and Niall are up for it.”

“Oh, yes, I’m always up for beer!” Niall chimes in, not even waiting for Harry to answer.

“It’s ok, I guess.” He shoots a look at Niall who just shrugs and puts a hand on Liam’s shoulder, guiding him towards the door.

“Yeah, we’ll see you tomorrow then. We finish our shift at 6. So, 7 o’clock at the pub?”

“Sounds nice! See you two tomorrow. Bye, Harry.” Liam waves at him as he pats Niall’s arm with his other hand before stepping outside their dorm.

“See ya, mate!” Niall closes the door behind him and looks around to see Harry looking a little petrified. “You alright?”

“Oh yeah, I’m fine, completely fine.” Harry huffs as he stands up from the couch, but doesn’t take any other step towards any direction.

“It doesn’t seem like it.”

“Of fucking course not, Niall. What the hell were you thinking?” Harry almost bursts out, but runs a hand through his face trying to calm down.

“What?” Niall walks back to the couch, sitting there looking confused at Harry.

“You did this on purpose, didn’t you? You set this up!”

“What are _you_ talking about? Of course not! He just happened to ask if I’d ever gone to that pub and then he invited me and asked if I thought you’d like to tag along.”

“Niall...” Harry is giving him a pointed look.

“I swear to God, Harry, I’m not plotting against you. I know you freak out just by the mention of Louis’ name. I know you’ve been making progress by actually talking to him these past few days, but I’m not crazy! I joke that you should create the courage to talk to him, but I’d never force you to do something that would make you anxious or uncomfortable. I’d be very hypocrite to do that, you know.”

“Ok, I’m sorry I thought you were setting me up.” Harry exhales deeply as he takes the seat beside Niall.

Niall throws his arm around Harry’s shoulder, half hugging him.

“It’s alright, Haz. You could’ve said no, though. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

“I guess I want to, though?” He is not sure if he’s asking Niall for reassurance or himself.

“Are you sure?” Niall looks with concern at him.

“I mean, I wouldn’t die to actually hang out with them, with him. It’s actually a chance to get to know him better instead of pining over him from a distance, right?”

“Who are you and what have you done to the Harry Styles I know?” Niall looks at him curiously this time, almost laughing.

“Oh, shut it,” Harry shoves him away, playfully. “I know that after listening to my rambles for God knows how long...”

“2 months,” Niall says without blinking.

“What?” Harry is taken by surprise for a second.

“You’ve been pining over Louis for two months now, I’ve kept count,” Niall states, as if it’s the most obvious fact out there, like, water is wet.

Harry widens his eyes and flops against the back of the couch.

“Right. Ok, yeah, it’s time for me to do something about it then.” He looks at the ceiling, trying to process how and when he let himself get to this point.

“Halle-fucking-lujah!” Niall exclaims as he pats Harry’s thighs. “Ok, now go prepare yourself mentally for tomorrow, because if I’m correct, you’ll not only get to spend the whole afternoon looking at only Louis, but you’ll also get to spend more time with him at night. You just hit the jackpot on this fine Friday, my friend.” He stands up, leaving Harry at the couch alone.

If Niall thought he was actually helping Harry by saying that, well… he did completely the opposite. Great. That’s absolutely great.

If he thought that he was actually getting a little bit more confident about Louis, about being able to do something about this soul-consuming crush he has on the boy, now he is on the verge of real panicking again. Thanks to Niall fucking Horan.

Harry feels as though he’s one step closer to the day that he’s going to murder Niall in his sleep.

*

Harry is trying to stay calm. It’s just another ordinary Friday. It’s not like his whole life is going to completely change just because he’s going to spend some time with Louis. There’s nothing monumental about that. It’s just a night out with some mates, or well, some guys he has been observing for the past weeks, but there’s nothing wrong or creepy about that.

Harry is calm, he tells himself when Louis enters the coffee shop that afternoon alone, as he always does on Fridays.

Harry is so calm that Niall doesn’t even have to beg him to take the till shift this time. Niall looks at him doubtfully and a tiny bit worried, but Harry knows Niall is trusting him to pull himself together and act properly in front of the boy since he doesn’t want to be an embarrassment later.

“Hiya!” Louis chirps, as he approaches the till, taking off his usual Ray-Bans and smiling at Harry.

Harry wants to convince himself that this is how Louis greets anyone he meets and that is not his Harry smile. Niall has already told him that he definitely has a Louis smile, one that stays a little too long on his face, one that even the aliens from another galaxy would be able to tell that Harry is completely gone for Louis.

“Hey, Louis.” Harry is certainly not portraying that smile right now.

“Oh, this time you remembered my name?” Louis smirks, running his hands through his fringe.

“Never forgot, actually.” And what is Harry even saying now? Where is this confidence coming from? He needs to step back otherwise there won’t be much left for tonight and he’ll certainly make a fool of himself.

“Good, good.” Louis is still smirking, now with his hand on the back of his neck. Is that nervousness Harry is sensing? He’s not sure he wants to know the answer to that.

Harry tries not to let his thoughts take over him and focus on Louis in front of him again. “So, what will you have today?”

“The usual.” Louis tilts his head as expecting Harry to just know what his usual order is. As if Harry would know it at the back of his mind. Well, he is not wrong.

“Tea and…” Harry purses his lips, making a thinking face, trying to remember Louis’ patterns for pastries on Fridays. Last week he had muffins, so this week he would have… “Scones?”

“Yes, I’d like that.” Louis is looking at him with fond blue eyes and Harry swears he could swim inside of those and get lost in them.

“Good. So I’ll just take them to you in a bit. You staying, I assume?” Harry asks as if he didn’t know the answer to that, because no, he won’t give away that he knows Louis is spending the next three hours sitting there.

Louis shrugs. “Yes, a little bit, I guess, Gotta study.”

“You do like to study here, don’t you?” The question is leaving Harry’s lips before he can process it. It’s not like he wants to know why Louis keeps coming every day to the coffee shop, but he definitely wants to.

“Oh yeah. It’s calm and quite nice and yeah…” Louis is now looking anywhere but to Harry and Harry tries as hard as he can not to chuckle, but he lets a small laugh out of his mouth, making Louis look at him and… is he blushing? Oh God, Harry didn’t know he could be any more endeared by the boy in front of him, but, oh was he wrong.

“Yeah, it’s actually nice,”  _like you_ , Harry wants to add but he’s not crazy. He hasn’t reached that level yet. He’s pretty sure he used all his confidence in that one little sentence when they started their conversation. He won’t try that again.

Harry sees Louis gulping and for the first time he sees that the boy is out of words. “Yeah. So, I’ll be at the table,” he mumbles, indicating with his thumb, before shooting a last glance at Harry and turning around, almost stumbling on his own feet on his way to his usual spot.

If Harry has his Louis smile on his face, he hopes to God no one – especially Niall – is around him to see it.

The Friday goes as usual, with Louis spending the whole afternoon at the coffee shop.

Harry attempts to take fresh batches of scones to Louis even though he didn’t order them. When he protests saying that he actually can’t afford those, Harry only winks and says it’s on the house and if Louis’ mouth is left hanging open and Harry feels like all air has been sucked out of his lungs, he just turns around like nothing has happened and hides behind the counter the whole afternoon.

He even manages to control himself when watching Louis – well, at least he doesn’t look at the boy as much as he usually does, because of course Niall is elbowing him a few times when he should be taking care of the till but his gaze doesn’t leave Louis’ direction.

When Louis is finally gathering his stuff a couple of hours later and is heading to the till to pay his tab, Harry wants to thank all Gods above because it’s actually Niall’s turn and he doesn’t have to make any excuse this time.

“It’ll be ten seventy-five,” Niall informs, typing in on the cash register.

“I’m pretty sure there are, like, two more scones orders in there?” Louis questions, shooting a look at Harry, who is standing behind Niall, trying to act like he’s not paying attention to them.

“Well, mmhmm,” Niall clears his throat and Harry’s certain if he could he would be turning around and killing Harry with his eyes if they could shoot laser. “Those were on the house, as you clearly are one of our most regular customers. _We_ do that _sometimes._ ” If Niall tilts his head, trying to indicate that by “we” he meant Harry and that “sometimes” meant “never”, Harry tries to ignore it.

“Well, in that case, thank _you_.” This time, Louis is not even subtle when he steps aside to actually look at Harry directly.

Harry feels his cheeks getting warm and ducks his head a little, not sure he can look back at Louis right now.

“So, Liam told me you guys we’ll be heading to the pub with us tonight?” Louis voice catches Harry attention again and Harry snaps his neck to look at Niall.

“Oh yeah, we will, right Harry?” Now Niall actually turns to face Harry. If Harry thought that Niall was going to let the free scones at that, he was completely wrong.

“Yes, right. We will.” Harry fidgets with the hem of his apron and he’s positive he looks like a pre-school girl who can’t hide her crush. He’s totally fucked.

“Nice! See you in a while then!” Harry wants to believe that Louis is completely oblivious to his behavior, but when he looks up to meet Louis’ gaze over him, with that knowing smirk, he wants to dig a hole on the floor right there and appear on the other side of the earth.

Louis fetches his sunglasses from his collar and puts them on, turning around. Harry almost breathes relieved again, but then Louis just turns his head around for one last glance at Harry and nods, before finally opening the door and stepping outside.

“You’re so fucked!” Niall chortles, holding his stomach with his arms, trying to contain his laughter. “Not only you, him too. Jesus, I could cut the tension with a knife here. I don’t know how we’re gonna last the evening with them.”

Harry smacks Niall on the head before starting to bite nervously at his lip. “I think I’ll just–”

“Oh no,” Niall interrupts him, “no backing down now. You’re going. You’ve come this far. You talked to him. You flirted with him, Harry, for fuck’s sake. You let him have free scones, ones you’re going to pay, by the way, so no. Don’t give up now. Don’t let your nerves get to you.”

“He knows I have a crush on him, Niall!” Harry runs a hand through his hair.  “He’s just playing with that. He must find me the most stupid person. He must enjoy seeing me suffer like that.”

“He certainly enjoys seeing you, that’s for sure. Otherwise he wouldn’t keep coming here every freaking day.”

“You don’t know that. He said that the place is nice, calm… maybe he doesn’t like to study at his dorm or at the library, plus he can eat here and–”

“And look at you,” Niall completes. “You’re too focused looking at him at times that you don’t even notice him looking back when you’re not paying attention. Everyone else can see it!”

Harry only shakes his head.

He knows Niall wouldn’t lie to him. Niall wouldn’t put things inside Harry’s head that he knew he wouldn’t be able to handle.

It's not that Harry doesn’t want to believe what Niall is saying. Harry wants to, more than anything. If he admits it to himself, he’s tired of dragging this pining for this long. He wants to do something about it. He wants to try and ask Louis out or at least be friends with him if what Niall is saying turns out not to be true.

But he’s afraid of jeopardizing it, he’s afraid Niall (and also himself) has read this thing wrong all along and that Harry is playing a fool who looks madly in love with Louis and Louis is one of those sick bastards who glorifies themselves because he knows there are people out there dying to get on their knees for them.

He’s afraid he’ll finally give his heart to someone and that person, as lovely and as endearing as he seems, won’t take care of it and will actually crush it.

Harry is a hopelessly romantic; he knows that. He should be more realistic and know that life isn’t meant to be a fairy tale where one day he will find someone who will love him forever, never having to suffer from a heartbreak.

He has already broken some hearts because of this, though. He has broken the hearts of some people who were willing to give him theirs, but for him, they just didn’t feel like they were the one. And the look on their eyes as Harry left them was something he never wants to feel for himself.

He’s a bloody hypocrite and selfish person, breaking other people’s hearts when he’s so oh protecting his own. He knows that.

He doesn’t want to be like that, though.

Maybe, just maybe, he thinks, he’d be willing to let Louis break his heart. Because even if he had liked people before, even if he had dated them for a few months before realizing that they weren’t the ones, even when he thought they could be it, he never felt like the way he feels when he looks at Louis.

It’s out of his reach to control how he feels around Louis, how he feels for Louis. Before it had been a silly crush, a maybe over the top infatuation, by just observing him, just feeling little butterflies every time he would come to the shop.

But now, after talking to him, even as little as he did in the past few days, he knows he would have Louis smiling at him the way he does for the rest of his life. If he could have anything, he would have Louis’ smile in a jar only for him to admire, to fill his life with light and love and everything that comes with it.

He would let that smile crush his heart if it meant he could have it for a little while.

Harry leaves his dorm with Niall later that Friday feeling like he can do it. He can be a normal person and talk to Louis and let Louis know that he isn’t a complete idiot who forgets how to speak properly when he’s around him. He’s done playing the little lovesick fool.

He just wishes he had a little bit more of confidence, though. He’s sure Niall won’t let him look like a fool, even though he’s been teasing him since they’ve left the coffee shop.

“It’ll be alright, you know? It’s not a date, you won’t be alone,” Niall pats him on the back as they walk down the sidewalk. “Just be yourself, be the goofball that you are, the funny and smart bloke that you are and if he isn’t already in love with you, he’ll certainly be. Charm him with your perfect curls and sexy dimple.”

“Nialler, one of these days I’ll just assume you’re the one in love with me,” Harry laughs, elbowing him on the rib.

“Mate, I’d be head over heels for you if I were interested in dicks, but eh, no, thanks. But just you find me your female version and I’ll certainly love you forever. I could also be in your life forever, you know, if you accepted me as your brother-in-la–”

“Niall, I’m not letting you hit on my sister, for the five hundredth time.” Harry ruffles Niall’s blondish hair.

“Your loss, and your sister’s loss too, because I’m the perfect match for her...” Niall breathes deeply, dreamingly.

“Dream on, Horan.” Harry throws an arm around Niall’s shoulder and the boy envelopes his arm around Harry’s waist as they pass in front of their coffee shop. He sighs in relief, as he never had to take the night shift. He’d rather very much stay on his couch or bed doing nothing than work until 10 pm.

One more minute walking and they reach the front of the pub. Niall squeezes Harry’s waist before releasing him from the embrace.

“Ok, here we go, Styles. Go conquer that boy’s heart tonight.” Niall exhales, looking at Harry with an encouraging smile.

“You know you’re not helping me when you say these things, right?” Harry shakes his head, laughing weakly.

“Sorry! Just trying to play the best mate part here. But well, I’m not lying when I tell you to just be yourself.” Niall winks at Harry and pats him on the shoulder before stepping ahead and opening the pub’s door.

The place is not crowded yet and it’s not difficult to spot both Liam and Louis already sat at a table near one of the walls. They make their way towards them as Liam spots them too and waves back.

For a second Niall slows his pace and he’s walking right beside Harry and in another he has one hand at the small of Harry’s back, guiding him to take a seat first and of course it is the one next to Louis.

Niall tries to look like the friend that is going to make things easier for you, when in reality he’s the one plotting your own downfall.

“Lads!” Niall exclaims as he greets them with that big Irish smile of his. Both Liam and Louis lift their beer bottles to Niall and he smiles back murmuring a hello.

“Hi,” Harry says and if his voice is deeper and louder than it usually is, he pretends he doesn’t notice it.

“Harry, I’m sure you already met Louis properly, right?” Liam nods towards Louis, who is looking at Harry as he takes a sip from his beer.

“Yeah, of course,” Harry replies as he sits down and notices how close his seat is to Louis’. One step closer to killing Niall in his sleep, definitely.

“Good! So glad you guys could make it! Sometimes we have our mate Zayn joining us, but he couldn’t come tonight. I just thought I’d ask you to join us, since you know, it seems like we’ve know each other forever.” If Liam seems to be saying the last part as if he’s implying something else, Harry doesn’t let himself think about it.

“Oh, I told you, me and Harry mostly hang out on our own, so it’s good to go out and mingle with other people, know other people for once.” Niall arches an eyebrow playfully looking at Harry, who kicks him under the table. Maybe torture will suit Niall better than a quick murder, he thinks.

“Yeah yeah… so, will you guys order something?” Liam asks and Harry sees that as an opportunity to have at least 2 seconds to himself as he offers to go to the bar to get him and Niall each a pint.

He tries to even his breaths all the way to the bar and back to the table. He can do it. He won’t die by staying too close to Louis. He won’t die for having Louis looking at him as if he’s aware Harry has an irreversible crush on him. He can do it.

He comes back to the table to find Louis laughing aloud at something Niall is saying and oh God, no, he can’t do it. If he thought Louis’ smiles were already something to die for, his laughter is now certainly the cause of his instant death.

He wants to put that sound in another jar and open it every time the world seems a little too harsh to deal with, so when he listens to that, his life is filled with happiness again, because that’s what Louis’ laughter is: a pocket full of happiness and sunshine and warm happy days.

Harry hands a bottle of beer to Niall as he sits down again.

“What story are you telling now, Horan?” Harry asks taking the cap of his beer and taking a sip from it.

“Oh, you know, just that time you came home to find out that someone had taken your camera by accident and you ended up with some dude’s camera full of nudes,” Niall almost snorts and chokes on his beer after telling that again. Harry sees Liam chuckling and he looks at Louis and, oh boy, he is laughing again and the wrinkles by his eyes are even more prominent than when he only smiles and Harry wants to kiss them. And that was a train of thought he didn’t intend to have. Fuck.

He can only feel his cheeks getting warmer and warmer and that’s not even the alcohol making its effect already.

“So, you take photography classes?” He hears Louis voice asking. He can feel Louis leaning his body in his direction.

“Hm, yes.” Harry looks at him briefly as he takes another sip of beer.

“And those classes include porn photography?” Louis questions in the most normal and nonchalant way, not even teasing and Harry wants to know how he does that as he almost chokes on his beer.

“God, no!” Harry coughs as he tries not to die. “That was, well, not why those photos were there. I don’t even want to know why those photos were there to begin with.”

“If Harry didn’t like the thing, I’m pretty sure he’d be traumatized for life at seeing those and would never want to see a dick again,” Niall states as if talking about Harry liking dicks to almost strangers were something totally normal that they do all the time.

“Niall!” Harry almost shouts and Niall only laughs, raising his hands apologetically.

“Well, I would too be traumatized to see some bloke’s dick I didn’t ask for.” Harry can sense a joking tone in Louis’ voice and he swears he didn’t see Louis winking at him.

“As if people willingly send you photos of their dicks all the time, Tommo. I’m pretty sure the only dick pics you have in your phone are your own, just waiting to send them to the right person,” Liam teases and Harry sees Louis’ neck and cheeks flushing.

“Shut the fuck up, Liam.” Louis holds his beer bottle harder, shuts his eyes and drinks from it.

“So,” Harry tries to change the subject as he circles the rim of his own beer bottle with his index finger. “You take music production with Liam too?”

Louis opens his eyes and Harry can see those blue eyes looking right at him. “Nope. I take drama classes.”

Harry is surprised by that. “Oh, you do? I thought you were taking the same classes, since you’re always studying together.” And that he assumes is the alcohol already talking because why the hell would he give himself away like that? Almost admitting he observes them every time they go to the coffee shop.

“Oh yeah, no,” Liam laughs sarcastically. “Tommo only drags me with him to the coffee shop because he’s too–”

“Because I’m what, Payno?” Louis is quickly to snap his neck at Liam and the other dark-haired boy can almost see his life flashing through his eyes.

“Because he’s too needy and can’t study alone and he’s a spoiled brat who says that the dorm isn’t made for studying and the library is full of nerds.” Harry chuckles at that. “Hence, that’s why I end up with him at the coffee shop.”

“Plus, food is always at reach there,” Louis adds, turning to Harry again. Harry gulps knowing he’s referring to him bringing those free scones just hours before.

“But on Fridays you never go…” Harry is speaking before he can stop himself. Niall almost lets out a loud laugh, but he covers his mouth with his hands as not to embarrass Harry more than he is already doing it by himself.

If he didn’t want to let the others know that he actually pays attention to when and with who Louis goes to the coffee shop, he completely failed at that task now.

Louis is looking at him with an arched brow and that knowing smile. Well, that’s a smile Harry doesn’t want to put in his jar right now.

“Oh, yeah, I have lectures on Friday afternoon, so for his complete misfortune,” Liam speaks and there is that sarcastic tone again, “he has to go all by himself. Poor him, really.”

“Ok, Payno, enough beer for you today,” Louis says a little too fast as he takes Liam’s bottle from his hand and darts a serious look at the other boy.

Harry lets a small smile form on his lips as he takes another sip of his beer and looks at Louis to see him blushing a little.

As the night goes on, they drink a little more and loose themselves a little bit. Harry actually manages to keep a normal conversation with Louis and if he notices that they are actually talking more to each other than to Niall or Liam, he really doesn’t care.

He also notices the way Louis gets closer to him as time passes by and at one point, their thighs are practically touching and Louis’ hand is brushing Harry’s over the table and if Louis is casually patting his curls with his other, Harry doesn’t want to think it means anything more than Louis having a few more beers than he should’ve.

“I’ve always wondered if these were as soft as they looked from afar, Curly,” Louis' voice is low and Harry thinks he died and came back to life in a second because he doesn’t remember ever feeling so cold and so hot at the same time. And he hopes to God Niall is not paying attention to them, because he must have the most absurd shocking expression on his face as he gulps and is about to turn around to look at Louis when he hears Niall’s voice.

“Oi! They have karaoke here, why didn’t you tell me this before?” Niall blurts as he’s already standing up.

“Yeah, Friday nights are karaoke night,” Liam replies. “You guys want to go? It could be fun.”

“Harry, tell them they are about to listen to the most beautiful voice they’ve ever heard in their entire lives.” Niall shoots a look down at Harry who still looks a little bit disoriented by Louis’ comment just a moment ago.

Harry snorts, giving Niall his attention. “Niall, you need to work on your high ego complex, mate, because, no.”

“You’re just jealous your showering singing abilities are not as grand as mine.” Niall puts a hand on his chest as if to act offended by Harry’s words.

“I’d rather listen to cats having sex than to you singing in the shower every morning,” Harry says and Louis laughs loudly beside him. Harry can almost feel Louis’ breath on his neck and he doesn’t want to think about the shiver that just went through his spine.

“Nonsense. Let me go there and put our names on the list so people can know what a real talented person sounds like.” Niall walks away from the table towards the small area that is set up for the karaoke.

“Is he always like this?” Louis asks, making Harry turn to him again.

“Oh, he’s worse. You have no idea what I have to deal with. Be glad you only have to spend a few hours with him during class, Liam. I already pity you for those extra hours you’ll be spending doing the project together.”

Liam only shrugs. “Nah, it’s nice to have someone fun around instead of only some moping ones.” He darts a glance at Louis and the blue-eyed kicks him under the table.

“Oi! I’m always fun to be with, Liam!”

“Yeah, when you’re not crying over–”

Niall comes back to the table right at that, not letting Liam finish his sentence. But Harry notices that Louis is one step closer to killing him with his bare hands right there. He understands the feeling and he laughs to himself at the thought because, no, Louis can’t be rambling to Liam the same way he has been using Niall as his shoulder to cry on.

“We’re up next, I’ll go first and then whoever wants to try to beat me can go after me,” Niall announces as he goes back to the karaoke area in a heartbeat, already taking the microphone in his hands.

Harry shakes his head as he sees Niall getting ready to start the song.

“Hello, hm, everyone,” he says as he adjusts his voice over the microphone. “My name is Niall Horan and I’ll be singing Teenage Dream, by Kate Perry in honor of my friends over there.” Niall points at the table and Harry knows he instantly goes red all over his face, because what? What is Niall saying?

He hears Louis and Liam laughing beside him as he only covers his face with both his hands and the first notes of the song start.

He peeks through his fingers to see Niall standing in the middle of the area, microphone in one hand and the other resting on his waist as he starts singing…

“ _You think I'm pretty without any make up on, you think I'm funny when I tell the punchline wrong, I know you get me so I let my walls come down, down..._ ”

Harry looks up again and he just wants to start laughing hard because the situation is already embarrassing but Niall is actually putting on a show.

“ _Before you met_ him,” Niall sings and Harry knows the little fucker changed the lyrics as he points between Louis and Harry, “ _I was alright but things were kinda heavy, you brought_ him _to life, now every February, you'll be_ his _valentine, valentine._ ” Niall points again and Harry wants to run to where Niall is and smack him down on the ground. He can’t believe Niall is doing that.

“ _Let's go all the way tonight, no regrets, just love. We can dance until we die, You and I, we'll be young forever,_ ” Niall continues and goes around the mic stand as he stops back where he was before and winks at Harry.

 _“You make_ him _feel like_ he’s _living a teenage dream, the way you turn_ him _on, I can't sleep_ ,” Niall sings looking at Louis, always tilting his head to indicate Harry beside him. And fuck him seriously, what is he even doing? Changing the lyrics and clearly making it about him, embarrassing Harry like that? _“Let's run away and don't ever look back, don't ever look back…”_

Harry can see Niall is almost cracking up, but he continues singing as if that is the performance of his life. “His _heart stops when you look at_ him _, just one touch, now baby I believe, this is real, so take a chance and don't ever look back, don't ever look back.”_

He can’t even look beside him, fearing what he’ll find if he catches sight of Louis. What is he thinking about right now? What is he taking from what Niall is implying there? Harry wants to disappear more than anything now.

“ _We drove to Cali and got drunk on the beach, got a motel and built a fort out of sheets,_ he _finally found you,_ his _missing puzzle piece,_ he’s _complete,_ ” Niall continues to change the lyrics and, yes, tonight is the night he’ll murder that little leprechaun.

Niall sings the chorus again and Harry can hear Liam and Louis cheering beside him and he never felt more embarrassed in his life. For him and for Niall, really.

 _“I'mma get your heart racing in my skin-tight jeans, be your teenage dream tonight. Let you put your hands on_ him _in_ his _skin-tight jeans, be_ his _teenage dream tonight.”_ Niall actually tries to dance, slapping his own thighs and shaking his hips as he tries to go up and down and around the mic stand one more time as he finishes the song.

Harry can hear whistles from around the pub and he doesn’t think he can ever come back here with Niall again.

He covers his face with his hands again and he feels a hand patting his back; and he knows Liam is too far from his reach to be the one doing that and he only wonders why Louis is comforting him.

“I dare any of you to go up there and outstand my performance,” Niall says, making Harry turn his attention to him. “What did you think about it, Hazza?” He is wriggling his brows and Harry swears he could rip them off with his own hands.

“I swear to God, Niall.” Harry clenches his jaw and his hands curls into fists on the table but two seconds later he feels Louis’ hand on top of his, feeling the anger towards Niall vanish. He looks up at him to see that he is actually standing up.

“Liam, I think it’s time to show Niall what a perfect duo we are,” Louis says and Liam shoots him a confused look.

“Oh no, I’m not going there.” Liam shakes his head several times.

“Stop being so dramatic, Payno and let’s go.” Louis walks around the table to get Liam by the arm and drag him to the karaoke.

The guy taking care of the songs hands Liam another microphone as Louis talks to him, probably telling what song they are going to sing. Louis holds Liam by the shoulder and whispers something in his ear. Harry can clearly see Liam mouthing “fuck” as Louis steps aside and takes the mic that Niall left on the stand.

“Good evening, everyone,” Louis speaks into the microphone and Liam just stands beside him, looking a little frightened. “We’re Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne, but you can call us Tommo and Payno and we’ll be… actually, I’ll be singing and Payno here will do the backing vocals, I apologize in advance for his stage fright.” Louis pats Liam on the back and makes an apologizing face towards the people watching them. “Anyways, sorry. We’ll be singing Just What I Needed by The Cars.” Louis nods at the guy to start playing the song.

Harry is actually curious because by the name he doesn’t recall what song that is. When he hears the guitar riffs and the drum beats, he starts nodding his head along with the melody, paying attention to Louis, who is taking the mic from the stand and stepping in the middle of the karaoke area as he starts to sing.

“ _I don't mind you coming here and wasting all my time, 'cause when you're standing oh so near, I kinda lose my mind._ ” When Harry listens to Louis’ singing voice he feels his jaw dropping because that can’t be true. That voice can’t be leaving that boy’s mouth.

And Louis is looking directly at him, Harry knows it, he’s not crazy. Niall elbows him on the rib to make sure Harry has noticed that too. And oh fuck, Louis is singing to him.

“ _It's not the perfume that you wear, it's not the ribbons in your hair and I don't mind you coming here and wasting all my time._ ” Louis actually points at Harry and motions his hand to his own hair, twirling his fingers on imaginary curls.

Harry takes a moment to observe Louis standing there, tapping his feet along to the song beat, one hand pretending he’s playing guitar as he holds the mic with the other.

Louis is wearing black vans, along with black skinny jeans. He’s got a grey plain t-shirt with a black jacket on top, with the sleeves rolled up a little, where Harry can see a couple of tattoos peeking out on his wrist and forearm. Of course Harry had noticed them before, but now the whole set just makes Harry realize how gorgeous Louis is looking.

“ _I don't mind you hanging out and talking in your sleep, it doesn't matter where you've been as long as it was deep, yeah,_ ” Louis continues to sing, now mimicking someone who talks a lot with his hand and winking at Harry. Harry wants to laugh so badly but he restrains it by pursing his lips and scrunching up his nose.

“ _You always knew how to wear it well and, you look so fancy I can tell and I don't mind you hanging out and talking in your sleep._ ” Louis points at Harry again before pointing to himself and indicating his own clothes.

Harry is self-aware for a moment, looking down at his own clothes and he thinks he actually dressed up pretty well for the night. A pair of black boots with ripped black jeans and a short sleeved black and blue flannel shirt, with two buttons at the top undone, letting his swallow tattoos show on his chest and also his tattoos on his arms on display.

His attentions goes back to Louis when the chorus starts.

“ _I guess you're just what I needed,_ ” Louis sings and he sees Liam by his side finally holding the microphone close to his mouth to say “ _just what I needed_ ” as backing vocals, still a little bit shy.

“ _I needed someone to feed._ ” Louis doesn’t take his eyes from Harry and continues to sing. “ _I guess you're just what I needed._ ”

“ _Just what I needed._ ” Liam looks more embarrassed than anything as he sings and Harry actually laughs this time because it’s a true contrast between Louis’ confident stance and Liam looking like a lost puppy.

“ _I needed someone to bleed._ ” Louis winks again and Harry bites at his bottom lip because what’s he even supposed to do with that?

“I told you he was into you,” Niall whispers close to Harry’s ear and Harry is torn between punching him and thanking him.

“Shut up,” is all he says as he blushes looking at Louis playing air guitar in front of Liam who just shakes his head laughing.

Louis goes back to singing the first verse. He puts the microphone back at the mic stand, leaning it down a little bit, and Harry thinks that his drama classes might help him to put on a show like that.

The chorus comes back in and this time Liam looks a little more confident as Louis embraces him by the shoulder to sing along twice.

Louis lets go of Liam and takes a small step in front of the karaoke area and he doesn’t even try to pretend he is looking anywhere else but to the table Harry and Niall are sat and sings “ _Yeah yeah, so_ love _me._ ” And Harry is pretty sure that’s not what the lyrics are meant to say because it doesn’t even make sense.

Louis takes a step back and goes stand beside Liam again but he doesn’t take his glance from Harry and when he sings the last lines, Harry notices he has changed the lyrics again, because Liam looks a little confused when he says one thing and Louis sings another.

“ _You're just what I_ need, _yeah yeah,_ ” Louis repeats three times and smirks when the last guitar note sounds, indicating the end of the song.

Harry hears the people around them clapping enthusiastically and he also wants to clap, whistle, bow and do whatever he can to show Louis what a great performance it was, but he’s too dumbstruck because, one, he still isn’t over how great Louis’ voice is and, two, he can’t believe Louis was singing to him.

“Ok, now you gotta go there and put on a show, Harry.” He hears Niall by his side, but he’s still a little petrified from what he just witnessed and when he sees Louis and Liam coming back to the table, he only feels Niall taking him by the arm, making him stand up and walk to the karaoke area. They bump into Louis and Liam in the middle of the way and Harry is in a too big of an awe to notice that Louis actually squeezes him on his waist as he passes by him.

“Ok,” Niall’s voice brings Harry back to earth and he sees the blondish guy looking right into his eyes as he’s in front of him holding him by the shoulder. “I have the perfect song for you.”

“Niall, I don’t think I can sing in front of these people, let alone in front of him.” Harry looks down at his own shoes, biting his lips.

“Mate, you can’t embarrass yourself more than I already did, and besides, your song doesn’t require much of a performance.” Niall lets go of his shoulder and takes a step closer to the sound guy.

“What song is it even, Niall? How can I know I won’t make a fool of myself if I don’t know what I’m singing?” Harry follows Niall with his head as he sees him telling the guy the song.

“You know this song by heart, trust me,” Niall says as he steps back into Harry space, but actually passes in front of him to go to the mic stand.

“Well, hello you guys again,” Niall speaks into the mic and there is some cheering coming from the people at the other tables. “Sorry to disappoint you, but my performance was a one-time thing that will only happen again in the next 75 years, just like Halley comet.” Harry can see some people laughing and he laughs too because how can Niall conquer an audience so easily like that?

“Ok, so, now you’ll have the pleasure to hear my friend Harry Styles singing. I assure you he’s way better than I am, but don’t let that get into his head, ok?” Niall reaches his arm to pull Harry closer to the microphone. “So, here is Harry Styles singing Friday I’m in Love by The Cure,” Niall says as he steps aside, letting Harry hold the microphone.

But he only stares at Niall with wild eyes because, what? Niall must be kidding him. Of all songs, Niall chose that one. Tomorrow, there won’t be a Niall James Horan existing on this earth anymore, for sure.

Niall winks at him and murmurs a “sorry, good luck!” before making his way back to the table with Liam and Louis. And right, Louis. Louis is there. And Louis will hear him singing and… ok, Harry is doing this. He’s gonna do it and he doesn’t know from where he’s gonna pull the courage and the confidence he needs to do this, but he’s gonna do it.

He looks at the sound guy, nodding at him to start the song and as the first notes come, he grabs the microphone and pulls it from the mic stand.

He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and then opens them again, now looking in the direction of his table, fixing his eyes on Louis before he starts to sing.

“ _I don't care if Monday's blue, Tuesday's grey and Wednesday too. Thursday I don't care about you, it's Friday I'm in love._ ” The lyrics come out softly from Harry’s mouth and he can’t believe he’s singing them.

" _Monday you can fall apart, Tuesdays, Wednesday break my heart. Oh, Thursday doesn't even start. It's Friday, I'm in love,_ ” he continues the next verse, smiling at himself a little and he notices Louis is paying close attention to him.

“ _Saturday wait and Sunday always comes too late, but Friday never hesitates,_ ” he remembers when Niall first told him that his love life looked like a The Cure song and he only laughed at his roommate, but thinking now, there’s no denying that this song fits Harry’s situation perfectly.

“ _I don't care if Monday's black, Tuesday, Wednesday heart attack, Thursday never looking back. It's Friday, I'm in love._ ” He keeps his eyes on Louis and he can see his blue eyes shining and his cheeks a tone more red than Harry remembers it being during the night.

Harry wants to go there and touch his cheeks and feel how warm Louis feels and tell him how much he just wants to touch him and be close to him and admire him, not from afar, not anymore.

Harry knew that what he felt for Louis was different and stronger than anything he’s ever felt, but only now he thinks he is accepting what it really is.

“ _Monday you can hold your head, Tuesday, Wednesday stay in bed, or Thursday watch the walls instead, it's Friday I'm on love._ ” He starts singing again, feeling a little lighter now.

“ _Saturday wait and Sunday always comes too late, but Friday never hesitates._ ” He thinks about how he longs for Fridays to be able to just look at Louis the whole afternoon and something warm spreads across his chest and he knows he has his Louis smile on and if he takes his eyes from Louis for a second to look at Niall, he’s not surprised to see the Irish guy rolling his eyes.

Harry takes a deep breath to sing the next part, actually closing his eyes now, only feeling the song. “ _Dressed up to the eyes, it's a wonderful surprise to see your shoes and your spirits rise, throwing out your frown and just smiling at the sound and as sleek as a shriek spinning round and round._ ”

“ _Always take a big bite, it's such a gorgeous sight to see you eat in the middle of the night, you can never get enough, enough of this stuff, it's Friday I'm in love._ ” He opens his eyes and if he thought it would be easier to look at Louis, now he knows he’s doomed because he sees Louis almost singing along at the top of his lungs to “it’s Friday I’m in love” as he laughs and throws his arms around Niall’s and Liam’s shoulders; and Harry could never get enough of that, really.

He sings the first two verses again, actually laughing and he knows that he’s messed up the song by now but he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care anymore about what Louis might think of him, because he’s looking at him again and he knows he’s not being discreet. He’s being plain obvious, just like Louis had been while singing Just What I Needed and if that leads to anything, he’s lucky and if it doesn’t, at least nobody can say he didn’t try.

He finishes the song and hears people clapping and whistling too and he kind of feels good about it. He knows he’s not the greatest singer, he’s pretty sure he doesn’t sing as beautifully as Louis does, but he feels good to see that there were people who appreciated what he did (for Louis), even though he also embarrassed himself a little (for Louis, again).

He’s a little surprised though when he gets to the table, and Louis is still clapping, Niall is the one who keeps whistling and Liam is nodding his head, smiling.

“So, when are you going to release your solo album, Harry?” Louis is asking as Harry sits down on the chair next to him again. He looks at him a little perplexed, trying to understand if he’s mocking him or actually saying the truth. “You have a wonderful voice,” Louis adds and Harry swears his bones are made of jelly right now because he feels everything inside of him melting down.

“Oh no, I don’t…” It’s all Harry manages to say as he ducks his head as so not to meet Louis’ eyes and smile, because they are physically hurting him right now as Louis’ face looks brighter than the sun, even in the dim light of the pub.

“Niall, you know him, tell him.” Harry feels Louis’ arm behind his back, resting at the backrest of his chair as he talks to Niall.

“Only if he takes back that he’d rather listen to cats having sex than to my beautiful voice after my incredible performance.”

“I can’t deny you gave a hell of a show there, Nialler, but the singing… you still need to work on that, mate,” Harry chuckles and he can feel Louis tracing circles on his back and now he feels like he has lost completely control of his own senses.

“Katy Perry will invite you for her next tour, Horan, leave your contacts open,” Liam chimes in laughing.

“And The Cure will call Harry to record a new version of Friday I’m in Love,” Louis says, tilting his head to look at Harry with fondness.

“You have a better chance of recording a new version of Just What I Needed and actually getting a music contract than I do, Louis. You have a beautiful voice, too.” He clears his throat as he feels his palms getting sweaty.

“You know what?” Niall calls, making Harry take his attention from Louis’ hand still on his back and all the nervousness that is spreading across his body. “Payno should manage all our future singing carriers and produce all of our albums since he can’t sing or stand on stage without shitting his pants!” Niall laughs loud and Liam slaps him on the arm as he shouts a “hey!”, making Harry and Louis laugh too.

All four stay at the pub for another hour or so before they decide it’s time to head home so they can get a goodnight sleep without waking up the next morning with a hangover.

If Harry doesn’t really want to leave so he can spend more time with Louis, he tries to hide it as they bid their goodbyes and he feels Louis holding him a tad bit longer than they needed to. He doesn’t mind that though.

He also didn’t mind that, after siting again by his side after all the karaoke, Louis’ hand remained on his back; he didn’t mind that their bodies were practically glued together and their hands brushed over each other more than a few times. He didn’t even mind the knowing looks Niall and even Liam threw at them the remaining of the night.

Although neither he nor Louis made any moves that indicated that they wanted more than that, Harry feels better than he did in the beginning of the evening. He’s sure he’s not left alone on the crush boat tonight and he hopes that, when Louis appears at the coffee shop again on Monday, he can work on finally doing something about his feelings for him.

*

Harry considers he was lucky to have headed back home on the weekend because at least he didn’t have to beat himself up thinking about Louis and Louis’ actions on Friday and what they meant. And most importantly, he’s lucky he didn’t have to listen to Niall tease him about what happened.

Although he had to hear some teasing from his mum’s part, since she kept saying that he had a different glow on his face and a smile that didn’t seem to leave his lips.

He didn’t mind his mum’s teasing but he was glad he had to go back on Sunday night before she finally decided to inquire him about his love life.

He was also glad because when he finally arrived at his dorm and found Niall sleeping by the couch already, it only meant there were a few more hours left before he could see Louis again.

*

“Ok, so no panicking this time, right?” Niall asks Harry as he puts on his apron. “I guess that after Friday night, there’s no reason to hide yourself.”

“I’m not gonna panic, Niall,” Harry rolls his eyes, “and I’m not gonna hide myself either. I told you, I’ll try to see where this leads. I don’t want to think what happened was a one-time thing.”

“Mate, if someone sang to me like that, stayed close to me the way he did I’d be willing to take their last name in a heartbeat,” Niall jokes, “so yeah, I don’t think that was a one-time thing either. He wasn’t playing with you, Harry. I stand by what I said before. He’s crazy about you too.”

Harry laughs softly, letting a shy smile form on his lips. “Let’s hope we’re not wrong, for the sake of my own sanity.”

Half an hour later, at 8 am sharp, Harry sees Louis entering the coffee shop and differently from last week, he is not nervous about taking the till shift.

“Morning!” Louis greets him as usual, taking off his Ray-Bans to show those blue eyes of his and Harry melts inside to look at them as he remembers how for most of the Friday night, that pair wouldn’t leave him.

“Hey, Louis!” Harry beams in return and if he feels his cheeks blushing, he doesn’t try to hide it.

“Someone seems very happy for a Monday morning.” Louis smiles back.

“I usually have a reason to,” Harry admits and no, he’s not embarrassed of being this forward, not anymore.

“Well, that’s good to know.” Louis winks at him and Harry notices the boy in front of him is blushing too.

“So, black coffee?” Harry asks without hesitation, not letting those awkward moments of silence and staring hang between them.

“Yes, sir.” Louis nods and watches as Harry takes a cup by the pile on his side, fetches the sharpie and starts writing Louis’ name on it.

“See, no forgetting your name this time.” Harry shows him the cup and Louis chuckles, as he shakes his head. Harry turns around feeling like he can do anything today because he was the reason Louis was laughing.

He fills Louis’ cup with coffee and returns to hand him his order as Louis hands him the money.

“So, where’s Niall?” Louis asks instead of his usual thank you that he’d say before leaving.

“Oh, he’s in the back.” Harry indicates with his thumb as he chews his cheek on the inside.

“Ah, right then. It’s usually him who takes my orders on Mondays, so I was just wondering...” Louis says and Harry can notice that at this point, he’s trying to make small talk and Harry lets out a small laugh because, right, Louis noticed that Harry was avoiding being the one to serve him.

“Yeah. He was, hm, he was covering for me, actually.” Harry scratches the back of his neck, a little nervously. He doesn’t see why he should be lying right now anyway.

“And is there a specific reason for that?” Louis raises an eyebrow, playfully. And Harry knows he knows, the little fucker. Harry wants to both kiss him and slap him in the face right now.

“No, not one in particular.” Harry ducks his head, shaking it, more for himself, as he tries to hide the smile on his face.

“Well, then I hope that from now on, you’re the one who I can talk to first on Monday morning.” Louis is both serious and flirty and Harry can’t deny he never felt more butterflies in his stomach than now because, Louis is openly flirting with him, no alcohol and high from singing to a crowded pub involved, and he never thought he’d actually see that happening.

“Hopefully, yeah,” he flirts back, still a little shy and Louis smirks at him.

“Bye, Harry,” he says, cup of coffee in one hand and Ray-Bans in the other, ready to leave.

“Have a good day, Louis,” Harry shouts back and Louis turns his head, already with the sunglasses on and Harry knows that by the way he is smiling, the wrinkles by his eyes are there and he wishes he could see them right now.

*

If Harry thought Niall was unbearably teasing him when he couldn’t talk to Louis, he had no idea how worse he could be now that Harry was actually talking and flirting with Louis.

Before, Harry was the one who couldn’t shut up about Louis when they went back to their dorm. But now, Harry had to be the one to listen to Niall’s rambles two nights on a row.

Tuesday was another day that Harry let his walls down and chatted with Louis while he was at the coffee shop with Liam and Niall couldn’t stop teasing him during their shift and as they played FIFA back at the dorm, about how Harry and Louis were perfect for each other and should just get married already.

And Wednesday wasn’t different. Even though Harry would talk to Louis now, the creepy watching thing – as Niall would call it – didn’t go away and Niall was elbowing him several times during the afternoon.

“Just go talk to him already and stop staring, Christ. He might be in love with you too, but at one point, eventually, he will start to think you’re a weirdo,” Niall says as he passes through Harry, who is leaning against the counter, not so discreetly looking at Louis again.

“What? I can’t just go there and start chatting. I don’t want to interrupt, he’s studying.”

“Harry, my mate, my pal, my bro, my dude,” Niall takes a step towards Harry again and puts a hand on his shoulder, making him turn to face him and look him right in the eye. “I’m yet to find two other people in this entire campus who are just as committed to studying as these two. I’m pretty sure I saw Liam playing Solitaire and Louis watching some cat videos on YouTube.”

“I…” Harry doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t want to think that Louis only goes to the coffee shop because of him. He doesn’t want to think that he drags Liam to the coffee shop with him because he’s too shy – as impossible as it might seem – to just go and talk to Harry. He doesn’t want to play the conversations in his head again between Louis and Liam at the pub last Friday that indicates clearly what Niall is implying. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to feel like I’m suffocating him or anything. We talk sporadically and that’s enough already.”

“If you say so.” Niall shrugs and goes back to his place at the till.

Later in the afternoon, Harry sees Liam and Louis getting ready to leave the coffee shop. He sees Liam heading to the till and his eyes widen when he notices that Louis is not following him, but actually coming closer to Harry where he is standing behind the counter.

“Did you get much study done today?” Harry asks, joking, remembering what Niall had stated before.

“Yeah, yeah,” Louis answers a little bit confused, but chuckling nonetheless.

“So, are we going to see you staring in a Cats play soon?” Harry jokes openly now and he tries to stop himself from laughing.

“What?” Louis almost gasps and Harry shouldn’t find funny nor cute the way that the boy is blushing.

“By the amount of cat videos you watched today, I don’t know, I thought you were doing some research on how to act like one for a possible cat role.” Harry is openly laughing now and he sees Louis shaking his head, more embarrassed than he has ever seen him.

“Ok, alright, you caught me there. Not much studying, not that there’s much always, anyway.” Louis’ voice is actually shy as he speaks with his head lower. Harry wants to touch his chin and make him look up at him, but he keeps his hands entwined on top of the counter.

“The shop hasn’t been so calm for you to focus, then?” Harry asks, curious.

“No, no, it’s calm, as always. It’s just… I kept thinking about something.” Louis is now looking up and Harry finds his blue eyes staring at him, a little more eagerly than normal.

“Louis, let’s go?” Liam’s voice interrupts the moment and Louis’ calm face seems a little annoyed now.

“I’m going Liam, just wait outside, will you?” Louis looks at him, tilting his head into Harry’s direction as to indicate something and Harry only sees Liam mouthing an “oh” and smiles, already turning and leaving the shop.

Louis turns his attention to Harry again and this time he has his flirty smile on and Harry can feel his heart beating so fast and so loud in his chest that he hopes Louis doesn’t notice it too.

“As I was saying, I kept thinking about something.”

“And what was that?” Harry questions, as he swallows dryly, a little nervous.

“I was wondering if, you know… if you’d like to, hm, hang out with me some time?” Louis asks and Harry feels that all the confidence Louis was trying to show before actually goes down the drain because his voice is so low Harry has a hard time to understand what he said.

“You want to, hm, hang out?” Harry asks back and he knows he shouldn’t be teasing because, really, he would never be able to do what Louis is doing right now, but the way Louis asked, using “hang out” instead of “go out”, so shyly, just makes him find the boy in front of him so much more endearing than ever.

“Yes, hang out,” Louis gulps and Harry can see Louis is gathering up all the courage he has to finally let what he really wants to ask out of his mouth. “I mean, go out with me, like, grab a cup of coffee.”

“Coffee, really?” Harry arches a brow, but he doesn’t sound serious nor offended or anything. His voice has a trace of laughter in it, and it makes Louis laugh shyly again as he ducks his head.

“Yeah, I’m lame, I’m sorry. I don’t know, anything actually. But... just the two of us?” He raises his head slowly, almost afraid to look up at Harry again.

And Harry is there. Just looking at Louis. Just admiring the boy who just asked him out. He’s just there feeling his heart fill with love and admiration and also anxiety and anticipation, because Louis just asked him out and he’s there, tongue-tied, not saying anything, just staring, when what he actually wants to do is say yes and jump over the counter and actually kiss Louis.

“So?” Louis finally looks up and Harry blinks a few times and breathes deeply, coming back to reality and he can see that Louis is nervous now, so he only smiles back and reaches his hands to meet Louis’, which are standing there curled up in each other, pressing each other so hard that Harry thinks Louis is actually hurting himself.

“Yes, I’d like that,” Harry finally says and it’s as if Christmas day just arrived early because Louis’ blue eyes just shine and his face lights up and he smiles from ear to ear, showing all his white teeth. Harry runs his thumb over the back of Louis’ hand, smoothening his skin and he can feel Louis softening under the touch.

“Really?” Louis asks as if he’s a kid who was just allowed to open all his Christmas’ presents. Harry only nods and Louis keeps smiling. “Oh fuck, ok, cool, awesome!”

Harry chuckles at Louis’ excitement and feels Louis’ hand squeezing his now.

“So, I know tomorrow you don’t work?” Louis tries to sound casual but now Harry knows that the boy might have been observing him too. “What do you say we meet Friday night?”

“Yeah, that sounds good! You still coming on Friday though?” Harry asks hesitantly because he wouldn’t miss the chance to have Louis in his presence as much as he can.

“Yes, of course,” Louis beams at him as he squeezes his hand one last time before he steps back from the counter. “So, after your shift? We don’t really need to get coffee though, whatever you like. I mean, we can just walk, you can bring your camera and we can take photos, I don’t know.”

“Ok, Lou,” Harry lets the nickname slip out of his mouth as he sees Louis walking backwards and almost bumping into another costumer.

“Great! See you then, Harry.” Louis slips his Ray-Bans back over his eyes and finally turns around, murmuring an apology to the person behind him as he makes his way to the door.

“Bye!” Harry waves as Louis steps outside and Harry can feel that his heart is leaving with him as well.

“I’d like to inform all the Gods above that I just witnessed a miracle in front of me. Jesus birth? Puff! This, right here, is the original and most important miracle to ever happen on earth.” Niall is almost dancing when Harry turns and sees the blondish one beside him.

“Oh please, shut up, Niall. And I mean it. Not a word about it. I can’t stand you talking about me and Louis anymore.” Harry shakes his head, laughing. He tries to hide it, but he can still feel his cheeks burning.

“That’s payback, my friend, from all the times I had to listen to you,” Niall pats him on the back as he passes through him and holds him by the shoulder, stopping him here. “But, no really, I’m so proud of you. I feel like a proud mum who is watching her son getting all grown up and shit. Oh, God, you’ve grown so fast, young Harold.” Niall fake-cries, drying his fake tears with his finger.

Harry almost whines. “Niall, please.”

“No, no, look,” Niall holds him closer. “I can already see it. You and Louis, bringing up all your children on the countryside, with a big dog, running in the green fields. No greener than Ireland’s ones, so I expect you to bring the whole family to spend the holidays in the Emerald Land, as you know, I’ll be the Godfather to all your little ones.”

“Niall, less, please, it’s just a date.” Harry wants to laugh but he doesn’t want to encourage Niall on his daydreams.

“It’s the first date of the start of a beautiful and long love story and I’m here to witness it from the beginning. Oh to be young and to be in love…”

“Stop it!” Harry slaps Niall on the stomach, making him release him from the embrace and walking past the back door.

Just then, Harry lets himself take deep breaths and calm his racing heart that hasn’t stopped beating like Harry is having a heart attack since Louis asked him out.

And that happened. Louis asked him out and Harry hasn’t felt this happy and as if his whole life has finally found its purpose since that boy entered the coffee shop for the first time.

*

“It’s another normal Friday, Harry, there’s no reason to be freaking out,” Harry tells himself as he takes deep breaths while he’s still lying in bed before his alarm clock goes off.

He barely slept during the night, his stomach too unsettled to let him relax. His head running over a hundred different scenarios as how his night with Louis might go (right or wrong).

At least he didn’t let his head be too caught up on those thoughts during the day on Thursday. This time he knew Louis wasn’t going to be at the coffee shop because Louis had him know that he actually knew Harry wasn’t there, and also, he didn’t have to think if Louis felt something for him as Louis had just asked him out the other day.

That was one of the most calming Thursdays Harry has had in the past weeks and he actually managed to take good pictures of the subject of the class, as he felt inspired to photograph things that reminded him of the sunshine.

If Harry’s honest, the only thing that he would have really liked to photograph at the time would’ve been Louis, because, yes, Louis’ smile is like sunshine, Louis whole existence is like the beam of light that enters Harry’s life and makes him feel warm and safe.

But at night, as Harry was getting ready to go to bed, the realization of what was going to happen the next day fell right at the pit of his stomach and he couldn’t close his eyes properly.

He didn’t need to get this nervous. He managed to have already interacted with Louis for two whole weeks, he managed to flirt with him and say yes to going out with him. He sang for him, for fuck’s sake. There’s nothing more left to do or to feel embarrassed for. There was no more space for doubts if Louis had ever noticed him before or felt anything for him.

What was only left was to be himself and get to know Louis better and see if from there, something between them could flourish.

His alarm goes off and Harry tries as best as he can to get ready for his morning lecture and his afternoon shift at the coffee shop and then, his date with Louis.

As promised, Louis goes to the coffee shop that afternoon and Niall looks like he is the one who’s going on a date with him as Harry tries to keep calm but Niall is constantly bumping him, elbowing him or tickling him every time Louis so much as glances at Harry.

The creepy stares continue that afternoon, but he really tries to control them, since he knows that it would be nonsense to keep looking at Louis all afternoon when he’ll have all the time to do it during the evening. And that’s why he doesn’t voice his thoughts to Niall, because he just realized how creepy he actually sounds.

They spend the afternoon the same as always, like nothing is going to happen when Harry finishes his shift, but if Harry notices that Louis’ stares are a little bit more lovely and actually openly at him, he only smiles to himself as he continues to work.

Louis does stay until 6 o’clock at the coffee shop, waiting for Harry to finish his shift.

He is sitting by the counter, talking to Niall when Harry comes from the back door, without his usual apron and his backpack hanging over his shoulder, ready to leave.

“So...” He approaches them and Louis turns all his attention to him.

“Ready?” Louis asks, already standing up and fixing the strap of his own backpack.

“Yeah.” Harry nods as he walks around the counter to meet Louis on the other side.

“Ok, children, you know the rules. Behave yourselves and I expect young Harold to be home by 10 pm,” Niall says as he puts a hand on each of Harry’s and Louis’ shoulders.

“Alright, mum.” Harry laughs as he slaps Niall’s hand away from his shoulder.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of Cinderella here,” Louis jokes, winking.

“Good. I already approve of him, Harry.” Niall winks back at Harry and he only rolls his eyes as lack of anything to say that won’t sound like a death threat, and takes Louis by the arm to lead him to the door.

“Bye, Niall!” Louis shouts back before stepping outside and Harry can only see the Irish guy giving them two thumbs up.

If Harry lets himself admit it, he is a little apprehensive when they leave the shop, because he and Louis haven’t exactly discussed what they will do. They didn’t talk about the date during the afternoon, so if Harry is panicking a little inside, it’s not actually without reason.

When they are walking down the street, Harry finds out that Louis is taking him to a burger place a couple of blocks away and ok, Harry wasn’t expecting anything fancy or actually romantic for their first date; but he can relax more now, because it’s just nice to be finally hanging out with Louis, so anything they end up doing, he knows it will be good nonetheless.

They spend a quite long time at the burger place, talking, eating and actually sharing a plate of chips. It seems so normal and easy to talk to Louis and get to know him. Harry actually is a little surprised at himself, because the nervousness, the shyness, and all the things that would always be in the way of Harry talking to Louis before are gone. Harry feels like himself and he feels like Louis is enjoying him like that.

They leave after feeling satisfied and actually receiving a few looks from the waiters because they only stayed there at their table without really ordering anything else for a while, talking as if they could keep doing that for hours.

Harry talks about how much he loves his photography classes and actually shows Louis his camera, as he had remembered to take it with him, not forgetting Louis’ words about how they could take photos when he asked him out. Harry also tells Louis about his mum and sister back home and why he decided to leave his small town and study and try his life in London.

And Harry listens to Louis tell him about how since he was a child his mother had always told him he had potential for being a great actor; how he always was in every play they would have at school, specially musicals, and how pursuing the acting career became his dream and that, maybe one day, after he made it to the big scene, he would like to become a director.

Harry also listens to him talk about his own mum and his 6 siblings, which includes two sets of twins and only one little brother and how Louis has always taken care of them and how much he loves to be around kids, and how he looks forward to having his own big family one day. Harry is not embarrassed to admit to Louis that he would like to have some kids of his own too.

After, they end up at a park, still talking about nothing and everything at the same time. About dreams and about life frustrations. About friends and lovers, ex-lovers and the likes. About what movies and books they like and which ones they would only recommend to their worst enemies. About favorite colors and worst food they’ve ever tried.

“Do you prefer to take pictures of anything in particular? Like, people or landscapes, or things in movement?” Louis asks Harry curiously, as they are sitting on a set of swings at the small park.

“Hm, anything really. I like to capture moments or anything that catches my attention, anything that I find beautiful and worth being captured and kept for posterity,” Harry replies, fiddling with the shutter button of the camera.

“If you were to take a picture of now, of this moment, that you’d like to keep, what would you snap?” Louis turns to him and Harry doesn’t think about the answer to his question.

He only lifts his camera to his eye level and takes a picture of Louis.

“What was that for?” Louis is a little startled because of the flash and Harry’s sudden action.

“I took a picture of something beautiful.” Harry feels his cheeks flushing and he ducks his head. He feels Louis’ hand on the one that he is holding the camera.

“Can I?” Louis asks, cautiously and Harry looks up at him again, nodding and handing him his camera.

Louis studies it in his hand for a moment before lifting it to his eyes and looks around with it, trying to find something to snap, Harry thinks, when he suddenly turns to Harry again and he hears the click of the camera going off and the flash almost blinding his eyes.

“I took a photo of something beautiful to,” Louis says before Harry manages to open his mouth. Louis is smiling at him and Harry smiles in return. He wants to keep this moment forever. Not in his photographs, but in his memory.

They realize they’ve been wandering around, not really going anywhere and that it’s actually later than they thought it was.

“I think we’ve broken your curfew time, oops,” Louis says as he looks at the time in his phone. “I believe Niall will want my head for not bringing you home at 10 pm.”

“Oh, yeah, by the Irish laws, you’re a dead man now, for sure,” Harry jokes, laughing as they keep walking but not really heading to their way home.

“Well, if I die tonight, at least I know I died having a great night.” Louis stops walking and Harry can feel his hand on his arm, making him stop too.

“Me too,” Harry admits, letting out a deep breath as he looks down at Louis’ blue eyes, which are shining brighter than the stars.

“Oh, look, we’re back at the coffee shop,” Louis snaps out from the moment as he looks in front of him. And Harry, too, looks to see the coffee shop on the corner of the street, with its lights all off, because yeah, it’s already half past ten.

Harry chews on the corner of his bottom lip, fearing that this is where the night will end. They are back to where they started their date, so he only thinks that Louis is about to say his goodbye and leave Harry to walk to his dorm alone when Louis’ voice catches his attention because of something completely different.

“Do you like working there?” Louis questions, as he keeps walking, and Harry takes a second to process that no, this is not Louis saying his goodbye.

Harry follows Louis’ steps. “Hm, yeah, I actually enjoy it, I’ve always enjoyed working in places like that, you know, I worked at a bakery back at home.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, so it’s kind of a familiar place for me to work, so I just tagged along when Niall said he found a part time job since it’s still a little hard to find serious photography gigs in town and it happened to be a place I’d love to be.”

“I love to be here too.” And Harry thinks Louis didn’t mean to say that out loud because of the way that he is blushing and quickly turning his face away from him.

“And what do you love about here so much?” Harry asks and he is not teasing. He wants to really know why Louis loves to go to the coffee shop. He wants to know why Louis goes to the coffee shop almost every day and stays there and occasionally looks at him when Harry is not the one who is doing it.

Louis slowly turns to him again and Harry sees him biting his bottom lip and gulping multiple times before he opens his mouth. “I could say it’s the coffee on Mondays, or the almost perfect Yorkshire tea on the other days or the pastries that are really good and sweet, but I’d be lying.”

“Why?” Harry feels like he’s going to die if Louis doesn’t spit out what he thinks he’s about to say.

“Because, in reality, it’s you,” Louis confesses and he has a shy smile on his face but his eyes continue to shine and Harry swears he can feel his heart almost fighting to leave his chest for beating so fast.

“Why?” Harry asks again because he doesn’t know what to say, he doesn’t know how to put into words what he wants to say to Louis. He just wants to keep listening to Louis explaining why he loves to see Harry at the coffee shop.

“I thought I was being quite obvious going there every day, Harold,” he laughs, nervously, “I never really paid attention to the coffee shop before even though I have been studying here for more than 2 years, but this semester my classic novels’ teacher is so boring I actually fell asleep during her morning lectures on Mondays during the first weeks, so I thought I needed something to keep me awake and I came across the coffee shop and when I first entered it, there you were, and,” he chuckles now, shaking his head, “I don’t even like coffee that much to be honest. I just didn’t know what to ask when I stepped inside, because you were there smiling on a Monday morning at 8 am and your smile, Harry… God, I thought my whole world had stopped moving the moment I saw your smile, the moment I saw that big dimple that appears every time you smile too bright, even when you’re being shy.”

Harry is sure his heart is going to jump out of his throat at any minute now, because, God, what is happening? Harry never thought this kind of things could happen in real life. He never thought he’d have someone in front of him saying that they have felt exactly how he did when they met for the first time.

“So I asked the first thing that came to mind and I told myself that I had to come back any other time to see you again and so I brought Liam with me because, no, I didn’t think I could go there alone, I was sure I would make a fool of myself if I tried to talk to you all by myself,” Louis continues and Harry actually laughs at that, because what are the odds that the way they felt around each other was mutual even when they didn’t have the courage to talk to each other in the first place?

“And I kept going and giving excuses to Liam that I needed to study and I actually try to study when I’m there, or at least tried at first, I won’t lie, but after Liam found out the real reason I was going there, I just gave up and he gave up too, saying that I should just go talk to you, but I saw the way you looked at me too and I don’t know why I was afraid to talk to you. Maybe you thought I was someone that had nothing better to do with his life than to spend every single day at a coffee shop and then, I thought it would be just too creepy to actually approach you and ask you out.”

“God, Louis,” Harry manages to say, because he still doesn’t believe what is happening. This feels like something supernatural, straight out of a fairy tale book, something only fate could’ve pulled out.

“No, I know I’m crazy, but,” Louis tries to speak but Harry takes his hand and squeezes it, making him stop talking and look up at him.

“No, listen, oh my God, this is–, I don’t even know where to begin with, because I feel like I’m having an out of body experience, when you see your life through another person, because I felt the same way?” He speaks fast, not giving time for Louis to interrupt him and now Louis is looking at him with eyes wide open and Harry takes a deep breath before finally letting out everything that is bottled up inside of him.

“What you said about you entering the coffee shop and seeing me? Yeah, that’s exactly what happened to me too. I saw you there and God, I knew I could look at you for the rest of my life. And when you came back the next days and I actually could watch you and see you from afar, this thing inside of me just kept growing and I didn’t know how to deal with it and I was afraid of actually talking to you and embarrass myself since Niall said I was already embarrassing myself enough by being a massive creep.”

“You weren’t a creep; it was cute, actually,” Louis interjects Harry’s rambles, letting go of his hand and pitching his cheek.

As if it is possible, Harry can feel himself blushing even more than he already is. “No, it was not, I know I had this stupid face when I looked at you and when you’d look back I just wanted to disappear.”

“And I wanted to go there and kiss you every time you looked at me with your frog face,” Louis says suddenly, so nonchalantly that it takes a second for Harry to process.

“What?” Harry almost jolts and he doesn’t know if he’s more startled by the frog or the kiss thing.

“You have this little frog face when you look at something for too long,” Louis says pointing at Harry’s face and ok, he pretended he didn’t say the kiss part. Harry is cool with that. If Louis can play it cool, so can him.

“No I don’t!” Harry’s a little offended by that but he can’t say Louis is completely wrong. Niall has warned him about his frog face too.

“Ok, let’s pretend you don’t.” Louis laughs and Harry bumps him with his shoulder, laughing too and a silence falls between them because, what are they supposed to do now? They practically confessed their feelings for each other right there, but they just keep walking towards the coffee shop without knowing what to do with those confessions.

“Hm, I– do you think you could teach me how to prepare coffee some time?” Louis asks randomly as they finally approach the front of the coffee shop and Harry is confused.

“What do you mean by “prepare coffee”? There’s no secret formula to that, actually in our case is pretty simple, because we just put the coffee beans in the machine and it does its magic thing in there and voilà, liquid coffee in the cup,” Harry says as if it was the most obvious thing in the world but Louis is laughing.

“No, I mean, like, those extra coffee things, not just coffee. I know how coffee is made, H.”

“Oh, you mean like, gourmet coffee? With cream and I don’t know, extra chocolate or mint and stuff?” Harry asks and Louis only nods in return. “Those are not difficult to prepare either. I’m not the most trained and expert barista out there, but I can try to teach you any time,” Harry continues and at that he actually has a sudden, probably crazy, idea. “Or… we could go in there and try now?”

“Now?” Louis arches a brow. “Isn’t the coffee shop closed now?”

“Well, it is but, we can go in?”

“Are you suggesting we break into your own work place, Harold?” Louis asks as if he’s judging, but he actually has a rascal tone in his voice.

“No, not break in, God, Lou, who do you think I am?” Harry laughs. “I, hm, have the key? My boss gave a key to each employee in case of emergency and it’s not like nobody has never come in here when it was closed. I’m not the first and I will certainly not be the last one to do that. If our boss knows that we sneak in, he never showed that it’s a problem, really”.

“Right, in this case I guess I’m ready to learn how to make coffee, then.” Louis smirks at Harry and at that Harry only takes Louis by the hand and walks with him to the back of the coffee shop to enter by the back door.

As they enter the place and Harry turns on a few lights, Louis goes directly to the counter, standing at Harry’s usual spot.

“So, this is your view?” Louis asks as he leans against the counter and looks around the coffee shop and Harry takes a few steps until he’s standing beside him.

And Harry wants to look ahead and confirm it to him, but he only manages to keep looking at Louis because Louis is the only view that matters to him, the only view that has actually mattered in the past couple of months.

“Yes,” Harry answers when Louis turns his face to him again.

“Nice!” Louis turns his body around to look at the coffee machines in front of him now. “So, how do we make coffee?”

“Well, as I said, it’s quite simple.” Harry takes a step forward, reaching the coffee machine and turning it on. “I guess I can show you how to make a mochaccino? Something with cream and like, chocolate chips on top?”

“Ok, I was hoping you’d teach me how to make some kind of aphrodisiac coffee, but I guess a dull mochaccino will do,” Louis mocks.

Harry chuckles. “Mochaccinos are not dull, Louis, and if you don’t do it right, it can get too creamy or too strong from the coffee, so, it’s a real art to master.”

“If you say so, then c’mon, master, show this young coffee padawan how to do it.”

“Alright, so, first things first, machine is running already, right?” Harry asks and Louis nods affirmatively. “Great, we usually leave some coffee beans there already, so no need to put more. Now, fetch a cup from the pile, we need to decide the size of your drink: tall, grande or venti?”

“I’m gonna get a tall one to match my size.”

“You mean small, right?” Harry tries to contain his laughter as he sees Louis rolling his eyes at Harry’s terrible joke.

“Oi! I’m big, ok? Just because you’re a few inches taller than me, it doesn’t mean the whole world around you is Hobbiton.”

“Ok, sorry Frodo. Touchy subject, noted,” Harry keeps joking, too entertained to actually see Louis getting annoyed.

Louis puts one hand on his waist and looks daringly at Harry. “Are you gonna keep insulting me or teach me how to make coffee?”

“Right, sorry, it’s just… you get so cute when you get a little angry,” Harry says unashamedly and receives both an arched brow and a flirty smile from Louis in return. “Ok, so, tall?”

“Yep.” Louis reaches for the cup and shows it proudly to Harry.

“Ok, now we gotta pour some expresso coffee first, Put the cup under these spouts.” Harry indicates as Louis does as he is told. Harry actually reaches for the cup too, folding Louis’ hand with his own as he moves around Louis to stay behind him.

“See the lever here?” Harry points with his free hand and Louis nods silently, reaching for it at the same time as Harry. “Now we just need to pull it until it fills the cup, but not entirely,” Harry keeps instructing Louis, as they both move the lever down a little until black coffee pours down from the spout, “because we need to have some space for the milk.” Harry guides Louis’ hand with the coffee to the steam wand. Harry presses a button on the machine and hot milk starts pouring down on the cup, until the mixture forms a brown-ish liquid.

Louis retrieves the cup from the machine and places it on the counter, as Harry steps back and reaches for the fridge, retrieving two bottles, one of whipped cream and another of chocolate sauce.

Harry hands Louis the whipped cream bottle as he puts some chocolate sauce in the cup. Harry fetches a spoon and swirls it, mixing everything up.

“Now with the cream, you don’t want to put too… Louis!” Harry exclaims as he sees Louis almost making a mountain as he sprays the cream on top of the cup.

Louis laughs as he puts the bottle down as if it was a dangerous object. “Oh, shit, sorry!”

“Well, it’s your coffee after all, so you tell me if you like it this creamy,” Harry shakes his head as he reaches for a drawer and takes a package of small chocolate chips. “It may not make a difference now, but,” he opens the package and spread some on top of the cream, “is it good like this?”

“Yeah, I guess it’s fine considering I already ruined it,” Louis pouts and no, Harry doesn’t want to kiss that pout away immediately.

“You didn’t ruin it. Some people actually ask for it with extra cream. So, hm, try it, see if it’s good for your taste,” Harry encourages as Louis is already taking the cup in his hand. He blows it slightly to cool it down a little so not to burn his tongue and looks up at Harry one last time before taking a sip from it, closing his eyes.

“Hmmm, it’s actually good,” Louis blinks his eyes open at Harry, as he retrieves the cup from his mouth, and Harry can see he has a small cream mustache over his lips.

“Is it?” Harry almost snorts as he tries not to laugh.

“Yeah, it is… why are you laughing?” Louis asks suspiciously, putting down the cup on the counter.

“It’s– you have…” Harry is not sure if he’s in control of his own body actions because he only sees his own hand moving up towards Louis’ face, “a mustache,” he giggles and Louis tries to look down at his own lips. Harry is reaching timidly and he ponders if he should do what he wants to. He considers it for one second before he decides that, fuck it, he’s doing it. “Can I?” He asks as his thumb brushes over Louis’ upper lip and wipes off the cream.

“Oh,” is all that leaves Louis’ mouth and Harry can sense that he actually tensed up just by his touch.

“There you go,” Harry says, shyly, pulling his hand away and actually ducking his head, because he can’t believe he actually did that.

“Well, I guess it would be a shame,” he hears Louis saying in a tricky voice, “if you also got,” he now looks up to see Louis getting some cream from his cup with his index finger and moving it closer to his face, “some cream on yourself,” he finishes saying as he brushes the tip of Harry’s nose with the cream.

Harry takes a step back as he shockingly looks at Louis. “Oh no, you didn’t!”

“Yes I did.” Louis seems too proud of his own accomplishment as he takes a step forward, entering Harry’s space again.

“You better clean it, Louis!” Harry is almost demanding, but he can feel his own body shaking as he senses that Louis is too close to him, actually holding both Harry’s wrists down with his hands.

“As you wish.” Louis’ voice is low, but Harry can feel his warm breath against his skin as Louis approaches him, is up on the tip of his toes, lifts his head a little and in the next second, all Harry sees and feels is Louis’ tongue licking the cream off his nose.

And Harry feels numb. He feels nothing and everything at the same time as he only stares at Louis, who has the biggest grin on his face as he steps down and looks at Harry’s probably dumbfounded face.

“Happy?” Louis asks, teasing, and Harry blinks and without even thinking about answering back, he reaches for the cup, get some of the cream on his fingers and just reaches for Louis’ lips again, spreading it over them.

“Guess you got more cream over you now.” Harry smirks, flirty and not paying attention at how fast his heart is beating.

“And how do you intend to clean it?” Louis’ tone of voice is actually daring as he arches a brow at Harry.

They are not playing it cool anymore.

And Harry doesn’t think.

In a second he is inside Louis’ space, both hands cupping Louis’ face, noses almost touching, breathing equally heavy, and eyes going from looking right at each other to the other’s lips in a fraction of seconds.

“Like this,” is all Harry says before closing the distance between them and locking their lips together.

It tastes sweet and Harry doesn’t know if it’s because of the cream or because Louis is just the sweetest person he has ever met. He wants to believe it’s the latter.

He closes his eyes as he tentatively tries to lick over Louis’ lips, both trying to wipe the cream off from them and trying to gain access to Louis’ mouth.

And when he feels Louis parting his lips apart and letting Harry’s tongue meet his, it feels like Harry’s whole body was just set on fire. He feels every fiber of his body combusting. He thought that Louis had already made his heart beat faster than he could’ve ever imagined, but he was not ready for this.

He actually feels like he’s going to have a heart attack as his tongue glides inside Louis’ mouth, exploring it and playing with Louis’ own.

He feels all air leaving his lungs and he needs air, he needs to breathe but he can’t stop touching Louis when he is holding Harry’s wrists as if he's holding on to dear life.

If he thought that he could look at Louis for hours, days, for the rest of his life when he first saw him, it was because he didn’t know how it felt to kiss Louis. This is what he actually wants to keep doing forever.

They eventually break the kiss because both need to breathe again and as they look each other in the eye, Harry seeing those blue eyes shining brighter than the moon and the sun, he knows Louis felt the same during the kiss.

“I like our cleaning methods,” Louis voices as he is breathing heavily, but with a smile that never leaves his face and that, Harry thinks, is definitely Louis’ Harry smile. “I think we should keep using them.”

And before Harry can answer or catch a breath properly, Louis’ lips are on his own again.

*

Harry thinks he won’t be able to live a normal life again. He’s not sure he knows how to go on with his life if he doesn’t have Louis on his side, if he doesn’t have Louis kissing him with sweet lips on starry nights.

He’s not sure how he was able of letting go of Louis’ hand and actually step inside his dorm without him late at night on Friday.

He’s sure, though, of one thing.

Louis is what he has been waiting for so long. Louis is it. Louis is the missing part of him. Louis is what completes him. Because that’s how he felt.

Every kiss after that first one, every tender touch, every feeling of wanting so much more, of imagining so much more, is what filled Harry’s heart with love and Harry’s sure that this is love. He has never felt like this with anyone else, he has never even been close to feeling what he feels with Louis with anyone else. This is different. And this is love.

Harry’s in love and he knows he can’t hide it anymore.

He’s sure he couldn’t hide it when Louis kissed him one last time with a promise of spending the Saturday together before, with a very longing goodbye, heading on his way to his dorm and Harry stayed by the door for minutes until Louis was long gone, but the touch on his lips seemed to never go away.

Harry can’t hide it when he’s lying on his bed, with his phone in hand as he types in a message and he doesn’t feel one percent ashamed or embarrassed of sending it before closing his eyes and sleeping with a smile that hasn’t left his lips since Louis said that kissing Harry was his new favorite thing.

_Can’t wait to see you tomorrow again xx_

*

“WHY ARE YOU IN YOUR BED ON YOUR OWN, STYLES?” Niall is screaming and Harry wants to throw his pillow at him but all he manages to do is hide his head under it.

“Go away, Niall,” he murmurs and in the next moment he feels Niall flopping in the mattress and actually taking his pillow from his head.

“Did it go wrong? Nonsense, you weren’t back at 10 pm, I don’t even know what time you came back, so I must assume things went well but WHAT DOES IT SAY WHEN YOU’RE IN BED ON YOUR OWN WHEN YOU SHOULD BE IN BED WITH HIM RIGHT NOW?” Niall as much as spits the words and Harry finally turns around to face him and he knows his hair is a mess and he has bed marks all over his face but that’s nothing that will actually make Niall stop his rant.

“Because we are civilized people?” Harry sits on the bed, pulling his pillow back. “It was a normal date Niall, we had dinner, we walked, we talked, we kissed and I came back home and he–”

“YOU KISSED? You bloody bastard!” Niall slaps him on the arm and Harry mocks a faux-hurt face, but he is actually confused as to why Niall thinks this is a big deal.

“Yes, we kissed,” Harry rolls his eyes and he can see Niall wiggling his eyebrows, expectantly, “but just because we kissed it doesn’t mean we have to go to bed in the next minute, Niall.” It’s Niall’s time to roll his eyes and Harry can see him mouthing a “wanker” at him. “It’s not that I don’t want to go to bed with him, we just didn’t talk about it? But he said he wants to go out again today, so, it may or may not happen, but, I don’t care about the sex right now.”

“Oh sure you don’t.” Niall slaps him again on the same spot and this time it actually hurts.

“Goddamn it Niall, no, I don’t, because, just being with him, I just–” Harry can’t even finish what he wants to say because then Niall is jumping at him, ruffling his hair.

“Oh, look at you, a proper fool in love.”

And Harry can’t deny because he knows he is in love and he is so fucked.

He bites his bottom lip shyly and he doesn’t even need to be shy in front of Niall because Niall knows. Niall knows everything he’s been through these past couple of months. Niall probably was the one to tell Harry that he was actually in love with Louis when Harry didn’t even think about it.

“Go set up your date with your boy, then. It’s the weekend, go be young and have fun, go get drunk and fuck on a dark alley,” Niall jokes as he lets go of Harry and stands up from the bed.

“Jesus Christ, Niall. I’ll never open my mouth about my love and sex life with you ever again,” Harry says shaking his head and already reaching for his phone on the nightstand.

“You won’t have to, because now you have Louis all to yourself. Unless he breaks your heart. Then I’ll have to go break his face, if it’s the case.” Niall winks at him before stepping outside Harry’s room, leaving him to think to himself that no, he won’t need to cry to Niall ever again, because Louis’ breaking his heart is something that is not even up for debate.

Louis’ eyes were as shiny as Harry’s own the night before. Louis’ touches were as eagerly as Harry’s. Harry could feel Louis’ heart beating just as fast as his own.

There is no way Louis could break Harry’s heart just now.

Harry finally lets go of his thoughts and looks at his phone, remembering the last message he sent before falling asleep. He wants to stay cool and pretend that he isn’t actually nervous to see a reply from Louis with just something sweet or with plans for what they could do later that day.

When Harry unlocks his phone, he smiles to see a message from Louis waiting there, but the smile dies a second after when he reads it.

**I guess we’ll have to take a rain check on today :( Sorry, curly!**

Harry checks the time of the message. It was 2 hours ago, a little past 6 am.

He doesn’t want to overthink. He doesn’t want his brain to go places it shouldn’t.

He doesn’t even have any right to be angry at Louis or even sad because of that. They went on one date. They kissed for several times that night, yes, but, it was not like Louis had taken a commitment vow with Harry just because of that. Yes, he said he wanted to go out with Harry again the next day, but, things happen and change, apparently.

And what Harry doesn’t want to think is that Louis’ feelings changed or that they were never there to begin with. He doesn’t want to think that maybe Louis spent the whole night thinking about their date, considered it better and decided that he didn’t want to go out with Harry anymore, that he didn’t like Harry anymore.

Harry will try his best not to think about the situation like this, he promises himself as he sends a reply, trying to calm himself down.

_Is everything alright? Sure, no problem! See you on Monday? xx_

He adds the last part, expecting it to sound casual, since they would normally meet on Monday anyway, so it’s not like Harry is forcing Louis to see him or anything.

The reply comes a few minutes later and Harry feels like he can spend the rest of the weekend a little less paranoid.

**‘course! Won’t miss seeing my favorite barista for the world ;)**

*

If Harry managed not to freak out the whole weekend without hearing (or reading) a single word from Louis, when Monday morning comes and Louis doesn’t show up at the coffee shop at his usual 8 am and not even later that day, Harry thinks he is allowed to proper freak out now.

He doesn’t though. Not in front of Niall at least, who is already worried enough as he notices that Louis didn’t come either and asks Harry if everything is alright and if Louis had said anything.

Harry doesn’t lie, at least not about the part that Louis didn’t say anything to him, but he lies about everything being ok.

He tells himself that everything is going to be ok, though.

He thinks about sending Louis a message, but Louis was the one who said he’d come to the coffee shop. If anyone should be sending any message, it should be Louis explaining himself.

Tuesday comes, differently from any message from Louis or Louis himself. Harry has his morning lecture and goes to the shop in the afternoon and again, no sign of Louis and not even Liam.

Harry is fine. He is completely fine. And this time Niall doesn’t even ask him anything, although Harry can see his concerned looks at him. Harry wishes he’d be receiving more comforting looks from a different pair of blue eyes, though. He hopes it can change once Wednesday comes.

And God himself must be enjoying seeing Harry suffer like this because Wednesday is just like Tuesday and Harry goes back to his dorm at night feeling like a truck has driven over his heart when he opens his phone for the hundredth time that day and no message from Louis is there.

He tries to sleep, but it’s useless, and he finds himself, several times during the night, typing different messages, sometimes asking Louis if everything is ok, asking him where he’s been, if he needs anything, but others almost demanding Louis to confess that he only played with Harry’s heart.

His alarm goes off in the morning and he feels like he doesn’t want to leave his bed. He can’t find the strength to get up and go to another park his teacher has selected for his class today. He doesn’t even think he has the courage to get his camera, where he knows there is a picture of Louis smiling at him.

Niall convinces him to go to his class though. He won’t let Harry moping around all day and crying and eating ice-cream. Harry doesn’t want Niall to feel sorry for him, so he gets up and gets ready and as they leave together for their respective classes, Niall says that he’s gonna ask Liam about Louis. Harry doesn’t want Niall to do it, doesn’t want Liam to think that Harry is a desperate person, but he can’t deny he is actually curious if Liam will say anything.

It’s no surprise that his field class sucks and Harry fails again to capture whatever the teacher asked the group to photograph. When he goes back to his dorm, Niall is already there and he pretends he is not anxious to hear what he has to say. Which is not much, to be honest.

“Liam said that Louis left on Saturday morning and he hasn’t spoken to him all week too, but he actually sent him a message saying that he’ll be back tomorrow.” Niall gives Harry a sympathetic smile.

Harry breathes deeply and thanks Niall for trying and being a good friend.

So Louis had time to text Liam and at least tell him that he’s alive. Of course he would do that, Liam is his roommate and friend. Harry is nothing to Louis. Maybe just a guy who he hooked up with. He doesn’t own Harry any explanation, really.

He goes to bed trying not to cry and thinking that he should give up already. It’s not like it’s going to be a week since he had the best night of his life and that after that his life became a self-pity show.

He was fine before Louis appeared in his life almost three months ago. He’s sure he can be fine without him again too, or at least he can pretend that he will be fine with a broken heart.

*

Harry is not waiting for Louis to show up at the coffee shop since the moment he started his shift that afternoon. He is so not waiting for him that he actually doesn’t see any problem in taking the till shift even though Niall offers to be in his place.

He tries anything in his power to stay occupied, busy, entertained just so he doesn’t have to think about Louis. He managed to do it during the night and in the morning. It’s not because there might be a possibility of Louis going to the coffee shop that it has to change.

And it doesn’t change for the most of his shift. He is doing well, he tells himself, and he is fine as the hours pass by and no sight of Louis. This is the finest Harry has been the whole week and he counts it as progress.

Only until it’s Louis who is entering the coffee shop and Harry feels everything inside of him going numb and he feels his legs shaking and his palms getting sweaty and he considers for a second turning around and leaving his till post, but when he’s about to do that, Louis is already looking at him, walking towards Harry and it would be just stupidity to run away from Louis. Unlike Louis, he is not one to run away.

Louis is hesitant when he approaches the counter and exhales slowly but deeply. Harry can’t help but keep a straight face at him.

“Hi,” Louis greets shyly and he is not wearing his usual Ray-Bans this time. His blue eyes are out there, exposed, and it feels like Louis face is naked, it feels like Louis doesn’t want to hide anything.

“Hm, hi,” Harry says in return and he doesn’t want to sound impolite, even though he’s hurt. He also doesn’t want Louis to know he is hurt, so he keeps the small talk just because. “Is everything ok?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. I…” He scratches the back of his neck and avoids looking directly at Harry for a moment, but then he blinks fast, glancing at Harry with a determined expression. “Look, Harry, can we talk?”

Harry is taken aback a little by Louis’ straightforwardness and honesty. So, ok, maybe Louis knows he screwed up. Or maybe he is just here to talk to Harry because Liam told him that Harry might be dying because Louis haven’t talked to him for a whole week and Louis is here to crush his heart in person. Or maybe Harry is definitely going insane and needs to give Louis a chance to talk before he starts assuming things.

“I guess so,” Harry tries to say calmly, he tries not to give away how anxious he really is. He tries to keep his face straight and his feelings hidden. He’s not playing the easy one. “Can you wait until my shift is over though? I can’t just…”

“Oh, no, it’s fine. I’ll wait.” Louis smiles tentatively at him and ok, Louis is willing to wait for Harry. That’s good, Harry thinks.

“Will you want anything?” Harry asks politely, still not showing much.

“Just a tea, then.” Louis fixes his fringe delicately and Harry can feel he is a little more relaxed than he was when he entered the shop.

“Ok.” Harry answers and as he is about to get a cup from the pile beside him, Niall is already there, getting it first and when Harry looks at him confused, he only says “I got this”, and goes prepare Louis’ order.

Harry doesn’t move and neither tries to talk to Louis. He is not the one who will try to engage something. He knows he’s being petty and stubborn, but he can’t just let what he felt for Louis, what he feels for Louis be taken for granted the way that Louis did.

And Louis doesn’t try to speak either. His head is low all the while he waits for Niall to come back with his order. He already hands Harry the money quickly and looks up to him again, his blue eyes a tone darker and actually sadder than Harry has ever seen and it hurts inside of Harry’s heart to see him like that, but he’s sure the way he looks is no better than Louis, so there’s that.

“I’ll just wait until you’re finished, if it’s ok,” Louis says and he has hopeful eyes now, almost as if he hopes Harry hasn’t changed his mind about wanting to talk to him.

“I’ll be out in 15, so it’s fine.” Harry chews on the inside of his cheeks as he sees Louis smiling just a tiny bit with the corner of his lips and turns around, heading to an empty table.

Harry tries to pretend that Louis is not there. He tries to pretend that it’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and earlier that day and Louis hasn’t come to the shop so he can finish his job properly.

Niall only squeezes his arm when Harry is coming through the back door without his apron and backpack already on his shoulder.

“If you need anything, just text me, ok?” The Irish one tells Harry and he only nods in return and what would Harry be without Niall? He would probably not be in this mess if it wasn’t for him, if Harry’s honest, and this is both a good and bad thing.

Harry walks up to Louis’ table and he sees him lifting his eyes from the cup to look at him.

“So,” Harry starts and Louis immediately stands up, leaving the cup on the table.

“Can we talk outside? Like, while we walk?” He is still a little hesitant and Harry has never seen him this nervous. Not even when he asked him out. And that was only a week ago.

“Sure,” Harry replies shortly and they both make their way outside the shop.

It’s silent for the first two minutes and Harry can see that Louis is trying to find a way to start what he wants to say as he plays with own fingers.

“I’m sorry.” He finally speaks, but he is not looking at Harry, head ducked as he now puts his hand in his pockets and kicks a pebble on the sidewalk.

“For what?” Harry asks and he didn’t want to sound angry or as if he is demanding any explanation.

At that Louis looks up with a pointed look because he knows Harry knows what he is trying to apologize for, but he explains it nonetheless after taking a deep breath. “For leaving you in the dark this whole time. I swear that was not what I was planning, Harry and I’m sorry for making it seem like I didn’t want to talk to you.”

“Well, when you disappear like that, what do you want me to think?” Harry is quick to answer back and he really doesn’t want to sound angry at Louis because he doesn’t have the right to, not until Louis really explains what happened.

“I know, I know,” Louis takes a step ahead and stops in front of Harry, making him stop walking too. “I should’ve explained. It was just that I was caught off guard too and I didn’t even tell Liam I was leaving until I was already at home.”

“You went home?” Harry is confused and a little worried now.

Louis ducks his head again. “Yeah. My mum, she had to go to the hospital. She stayed there until Wednesday and I had to go back to help with the little ones. I’m sorry for not telling you this, Harry, but it was just crazy there, me not knowing if my mum was going to be ok, and my sisters and the baby twins getting worried too. I barely had time to think about anything else.”

Harry wants to punch himself. He wants to set himself on fire for being so selfish and for only thinking about his own feelings and never considering that Louis could’ve had problems of his own to deal with.

“Oh, my God, Louis. I’m sorry about that. I’m so sorry. I hope your mum is ok now.” Harry wants to hug Louis and make sure that he is ok too.

“Yeah, she’s fine, she had to go under surgery and when she came back home, I told her I would stay as long as I needed until everything was back in place again, so I only left this morning and I came straight to talk to you.”

“You didn’t have to! You must be exhausted, Louis, you should’ve gone to your dorm and get some sleep,” Harry tries to reason, but Louis interrupts him.

“But I couldn’t, H, that’s the problem, I couldn’t not talk to you,” Louis takes another step and he is inside Harry’s space and he actually takes Harry’s hands in his own and looks up at him, his blue eyes now with its usual light, the light that has Harry’s leg almost giving out. “Not after knowing that I didn’t talk to you for this long. I know I should’ve and I apologize for that and even if I can put the blame a little on the fact that life was a bit chaotic these past few days, I also need to blame myself, because…” He looks away for a moment and Harry doesn’t want Louis to look away. He needs those blue eyes looking at him after not having them on him for so long, so he puts a hand on Louis’ chin, making him face him again.

“Why?”

“Because I was a little afraid of how I felt for you?” He laughs slightly. “Harry, last Friday was one of the best times I’ve ever had in a long time, if not ever, and I was on cloud nine when I left you at the dorm and a little terrified myself, to be honest, not because I had realized anything, but because I was just confirming what I had been feeling for you for weeks,” he says, squeezing Harry’s hand and Harry is back again at feeling like Louis is taking all the air from his lungs.

“And I was terrified about how you felt about me, because if there was one thing that I realized that night was how you felt the same and I hope I’m not wrong about that,” Louis continues and if it’s possible, Harry takes a step forward and the tip of his shoes brushes against Louis’ and his forehead is resting against Louis’, his green eyes looking directing down at Louis’ blue ones, which are shining again.

“Oh, you’re not wrong. Not at all, not one bit,” Harry chuckles.

“I already hoped that when you sang Friday I’m in Love at the karaoke,” Louis shakes his head laughing too, “I mean, fuck Harry, I was already so gone for you there. Liam almost killed me when I chose Just What I Needed to sing because he didn’t think I could be any more obvious than I already was, because really, when you’re standing oh so near, I kinda lose my mind.”

Harry is now laughing out loud, throwing his head back, curls bouncing a little and he doesn’t know what to do or how to feel, because he wants to do everything and feel everything, all at once.

Louis’ hand moves to the nape of his neck and pulls Harry’s head back down a little, never taking his eyes off him.

Harry breathes deeply and he knows the next thing that is leaving his mouth is the most real thing he has ever said in his entire life.

“Louis, it’s Friday and I’m in love… with you,” he confesses and he knows he shouldn’t have tried to make such a lame joke at this but when it’s Louis that is throwing his head back and laughing so hard that his eyes crinkle, Harry’s heart is unable to stop beating as if he had just been struck by a lightning.

“Oh fuck, we’re so sappy,” Louis tries to stop laughing as his head makes his way back to facing Harry and he doesn’t even give a moment for Harry to collect his own thoughts as his mouth is already on his.

And Harry feels whole again. Harry feels like his heart is mending himself from the truck that had driven over him, growing stronger because this is Louis kissing him, washing away all the silly doubts Harry has had in the past few days, telling him as their tongues find each other, that he is also in love with him.

Louis pulls a little at the hair at the back of Harry’s neck and Harry grabs Louis’ arm and they hold each other close as if they depend on this.

Louis’ other hand is squeezing Harry’s waist and Harry feels everything. Feels the way Louis tongue is chasing his, not desperately though, but with intent; feels how even though he’s pulling some curls, he’s also gentle and scratching Harry’s scalp tenderly; feels how the hand on his waist is slowly pulling him closer to Louis, if that is even possible.

He feels everything inside of him finding its meaning again, finding where they belong, finding home.

Louis pulls away from the kiss, biting slightly at Harry’s bottom lip. “Just for the record, I’m in love with you too,” he says grinning up at Harry. And Harry can feel his own eyes shining and no, those are not tears gathering up on his eyes.

“Good,” is all Harry says before finding Louis’ mouth again, now moving his hand from Louis’ arm up to his neck, jaw and then cheek, holding him firmly as he feels Louis opening his mouth for him again.

This is something Harry could definitely do for the rest of his life. This and so much more. He wants to do so much more with Louis as he feels the other slightly moving down his hand from Harry’s waist, to meet with the hem of his t-shirt, lifting it up a little to press his hand on Harry’s skin.

Harry gasps at the touch and he can feel himself already getting turned on by that, the front of his trousers feeling like it's suffocating him.

“Louis,” he tries to break away from the kiss, a little breathless, “we’re in the middle of the street,” he says, chuckling shyly.

“And what do you suggest we do, then?” Louis’ thin lips are red, the way he asks almost seems sinful, and Harry doesn’t feel like he knows how to deal with it right now as they are still standing on the sidewalk and not going anywhere where Harry can actually do something about how he feels.

“Do you want to go to my dorm?” Harry is quick to think and when Louis eyes widen so bright he smiles just as brightly, already feeling his heart beating even faster.

“Isn’t Niall there, though?” Louis asks a little hesitantly.

“He owns me so much for being a pain in the arse these past few months, I guess I can ask him to take a little longer to come back home.” Harry smirks, already getting his phone from his pockets.

“Ok.” Louis laughs as he watches Harry type on his phone.

_You know how you said I could text you if I needed anything? I need you NOT to go to our dorm now, please and thank you :)_

And Harry waits as he already sees the three dots popping up and Niall’s answer coming right after.

**OH BOY, GO GET HIM!!!!!!**

And the message is followed by an amount of emojis that Harry doesn’t even want to know what they mean.

He slips his phone back in his pocket again and takes Louis by the hand without hesitation, guiding him to the path to his dorm and if he feels Louis’ hand just as sweaty as his, he tries to pretend he doesn’t get more nervous because of that.

They get to Harry’s dorm without rush, taking their time and not letting go of each other’s hand the whole walk, but as soon as they step inside and Harry closes the door behind him and drops his backpack on the floor, Louis is already clasping Harry by the neck, lips giving gentle kisses there and if Harry notices that he is sucking and nibbling a little at his skin, he can’t help the moan that gets out of his mouth.

“Jesus, Lou,” he gulps and feels Louis’ lips on his Adam’s apple. And when he closes his eyes at the touch, all he can think about is how much he actually wants Louis’ lips around his own cock.

He can feel all the blood from his head rushing to his cock as Louis presses his body against him, his own bulge against Harry’s hard on.

“Want me to take care of this?” Louis looks up at Harry, his blue eyes a little bit dark and this time Harry knows it’s not from sadness. He moves a hand to reach the waistband of Harry’s jean, making Harry pant.

“Yes,” Harry can feel his voice breaking as he sucks hard on his own lips. “Bed, please, Louis.” he breathes heavily.

“Lead the way, love.” Louis steps back and Harry already misses the close contact.

He only takes Louis by the hand one more time and pulls him, leading him through the small way to his bedroom.

He closes the door and turns around to see Louis standing there, just looking at Harry, tongue licking on his own lips.

“God, Harry, you’re so beautiful, so gorgeous.” He takes a step forward, and so does Harry. Louis’ hands is on Harry’s hair, brushing it gently. “I’m gonna take care of you, I want you to feel good, so good,” he says as he kisses Harry’s cheek, then Harry’s nose, then finally moves to his mouth.

And Harry doesn’t even know what to say, he only feels Louis walking backwards, not separating their mouths, making Harry walk with him until both fall on the bed.

They shift until they are settled, never stopping kissing, never leaving their mouths for more than five seconds to only catch a breath.

Louis’ hand is fast to go from Harry’s face, to his arm and torso and finally the zipper of Harry’s jeans. He doesn’t open it though, only presses his palm against Harry's already hard cock and Harry swears he is seeing stars just by the touch through the layer of cloth.

“Louis, please,” Harry almost cries, panting over Louis’ mouth as he grabs Louis’ hand, making the blue-eyed look at him.

“I don’t wanna rush it, I want you to feel everything, I want to treat you right, make it special, Harry, you’re so perfect, you deserve–”

“I don’t think I can last much, though,” Harry interrupts Louis’ speech and laughs shyly at that.

Louis only grins and nods, kissing Harry one more time.

“Off,” he says as his other hand moves to the hem of Harry’s t-shirt. Harry obeys and pulls his shirt off in a second and he doesn’t even ask Louis, but he is already working on pulling Louis’ own shirt off too.

And when he looks at Louis' exposed chest, all he wants is to kiss it, kiss all over it, taste Louis and feel how his skin feels under his lips. And he does it, he leans a bit forward, putting his lips over Louis’ upper chest, where he can see there is a tattoo spread over it. And he kisses all over it while Louis works on unzipping Harry’s trousers and pulling it down along with his pants.

“Fuck, H, you look so beautiful, so ready for me,” Louis pushes Harry away from his chest a little, touching him on the chin to look up at him. “I could just stare at you for hours.” He says as he catches Harry's lips in his one more time. Harry bites at Louis' lips, making him smile during the kiss and when Harry looks at them when they part, they are a little bit swollen and so flushed red, he has a hard time thinking straight.

“Want your lips on me,” is all he says and then Louis’ hands are on Harry’s chest, pushing him carefully to lean down on his back on the mattress.

Louis kisses him one more time quickly, but fervently, and then moves down to Harry’s neck, collarbones, chest and licks one of Harry’s nipples as he trails a way down Harry’s belly with his index finger, going all the way to meet Harry’s hard cock against it. He continues to move down with his mouth and he actually settles himself between Harry’s legs, his face now on Harry’s crouch level.

“So gorgeous,” Louis whispers against Harry’ groin and Harry can feel his hot breath against his skin and he closes his eyes as he feels Louis kissing all the length of his cock, from base to tip, until his tongue is circling around the head.

“Lou,” Harry manages to say as his hands are already on Louis’ hair, pulling at some locks.

And that is apparently the encouragement Louis needed to take Harry inside his mouth.

Harry gasps, mouth open and eyes shut, feeling his stomach twirl and his legs already starting to shake a little.

Louis goes down on him, taking the most of his cock and holding the base, as he sucks, lips pressing against Harry’s hot and already slimy skin from the precome and Louis’ saliva.

Harry starts to thrust his hips forward, still holding on to Louis’ hair, starting to fuck Louis’ mouth.

He can feel Louis moaning around his cock as he goes up and down. He pulls away a little and Harry opens his eyes at the lack of contact to see Louis’ eyes looking at him, with a satisfying smile on his face.

“Is this alright? Is this good, love?” He asks and Harry only nods, licking his lips and running his hand through Louis’ fringe, swapping it away from his already sweaty forehead.

“Keep going, Louis, please.” Harry’s voice is almost pleading and it doesn’t take more than a second for Louis to have his mouth around Harry again. This time he strokes more at Harry’s cock, tongue playing with the head and Harry doesn’t think he has ever felt so good in his life.

He doesn’t close his eyes this time, watching as his own hips jerks forward to meet with Louis’ mouth movements and that is what sends a rushing feeling from his spine, through his stomach to his cock and he is moaning at the sight and he feels his cock filling up until he can’t hold it anymore.

“Lou, I’m gonna…” He as much as announces as he is already spilling all over Louis’ mouth. He can’t describe what he feels as he is breathing heavily, his vision blurred and body shaking under Louis.

Louis looks up at him and he smiles, even with Harry’s cock inside his mouth. It takes a second for him to pull it out and then Harry can see him licking his own lips and actually swallowing and fuck, Louis just swallowed for him and Harry has never seen a more gorgeous sight than that.

Louis strokes Harry’s thighs with his hands as he moves up to meet Harry’s lips again and Harry can taste himself in Louis’ mouth. He can feel everything. He can feel how Louis is grinding against Harry’s hips, still with his own trousers on and Harry just thinks this is wrong.

“Lou, let me,” he says as he pulls away from the kiss and his hands are already on Louis trousers and Louis is fast to unzip it and pull it down. His pants don’t come off though and he presses his palm against his bulge, massaging it.

And Harry doesn’t think it’s possible to get hard again, but something is growing inside him as Louis pulls his pants downs and his own cock comes in sight, hard and swollen against his stomach, already leaking precome.

Harry sees Louis’ hand reaching to touch it and Harry urges to touch it too.

“Louis, please, can I…? I wanna take care of you now.” Harry doesn’t think he can be this nervous, but he feels his hand trembling when it meets Louis’ around his cock and without even saying anything, only looking at each other, they start stroking Louis’ cock together.

“Oh fuck,” Louis opens his mouth and closes his eyes and Harry more than promptly kisses him.

“Come for me, babe.” Harry breathes against Louis’ mouth and feels Louis’ throbbing cock in his hands, working faster on it and he can feel Louis’ hand almost going limp around himself as he lets Harry do all the work.

“Jesus, Harry.” Louis moans as he lets his head fall on Harry’s shoulder and Harry feels his body quivering against him.

Harry feels Louis’ warm come on his hand and against his own stomach too, as he looks down to see the mess between them.

“You feel so good, Harry,” Louis manages to speak, coming back from his high, pulling Harry’s face to meet his again, lips already searching for Harry’s. “Never wanna stop feeling you like this,” he says as he only pecks at Harry’s mouth.

And Harry doesn’t think it’s possible to be more in love with this boy as Louis envelopes him in a embrace, actually cuddles him, nuzzling his face against his neck.

“I can assure you I will never let you stop feeling like this, if that’s what you want.” Harry promises and he doesn’t care if it feels too soon, but he knows he is in love with Louis and he won’t let him go away.

“Yes, that’s what I want, that’s exactly what I need,” Louis affirms, voice low as he places a tender kiss on his neck before squeezing him tightly around his arm, not minding the sticky come between them.

And fuck, Harry is completely in love.

*

“God, you two are here already!” Niall grunts as he steps inside the dorm. Harry looks up from where his is lying on the couch with Louis pressed against his chest.

“Nialler, we left the shop 30 minutes before you, of course we are here.” Harry shakes his head.

“Can’t you go to Louis’ dorm? Liam said he was going out with Zayn, so, you know, you could have a room all to yourselves there,” Niall says as he throws his backpack on the round table in the small kitchen.

“Why? Are you sick of us already, Horan?” Louis speaks, lifting his head to look properly at Niall as the other sits down at a chair. “Weren’t you the one who was jumping around just a week ago because Harry and I were in bed?” Louis has a playful smile on his face and Harry wants to smack him for being a little shit to Niall.

“Yes, that was when I didn’t know you guys could get even more disgusting together, ugh.” Niall stands up, going to the cupboard to grab a glass and some water from the fridge.

“If I remember correctly,” Harry sits straight on the couch, hugging Louis from behind and resting his chin on his shoulder, “you said you were here to witness my love story with Louis from the beginning, so I don’t know why you’re complaining.” Harry laughs as Louis turns his head to kiss him on the cheek.

“Jesus, get a room you two lovebirds.” Niall drinks from his glass and then puts it on the sink, walking back to grab his backpack again. “I regret ever making Harry talk to you at the coffee shop now, Louis. He was already unbearable when he couldn’t talk to you and I thought my life would become easier once you two started to fuck.”

“Niall!” Harry exclaims, a little shocked about Niall’s lack of filter and Louis only laughs under his embrace.

“I don’t know if I should be honored that you keep track of our fucks or worried, Nialler,” Louis says and Harry can see Niall flipping him off before he starts to laugh too.

“Nah, actually, if I think about it, it’s better to finally hear that Harry is getting some than to listen to him ranting and crying over you every day.” Niall shrugs as he makes his way to his bedroom. “But please, keep the fucking to a minimum today. I’ve had enough for a week.”

“We’re not savages, Niall, Jesus,” Harry says, as he squeezes Louis closer. “We are not even doing anything, we’re just cuddling.”

“And that already makes me sick just to see you two so in love,” Niall replies before shutting the door.

And that is true. They are so in love. They’ve been in a love bubble for a week now and Harry can only say that everything that he has felt for Louis has only grown since last Friday.

They spent the weekend together and maybe that’s why Niall is sick of seeing them because they never actually left the dorm, more specifically Harry’s room.

On Monday, there was Louis again at the coffee shop, getting his cup of coffee before leaving for his class with a goodbye kiss.

Tuesday and Wednesday, Louis went to the shop after his morning classes, but didn’t stay for hours like he used to, since they both knew they didn’t have to keep staring and longing for each other anymore. Later at night, though, Louis was at Harry’s dorm or Harry at Louis’, spending the rest of the day together.

On Thursday, Louis showed up at Harry’s field class to take him home and if Harry took a picture of Louis, with a beautiful sunset as the background just so he could finally have a proper picture of Louis after imagining him as the subject of his photos for so long, nobody could blame him.

And now, it’s Friday, and there they are, lying on Harry’s small couch, curled up on each other, with the telly on but not actually paying attention to it.

And as they stay there, kissing and cuddling and saying sweet things to each other and taking the piss out of Niall, Harry knows.

He knows that it’s Friday and that he is completely in love with the guy that one day appeared at the coffee shop and turned his life around since then.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> Comments and suggestions about improvements on the story are always welcome! xx
> 
> [tumblr post](http://perfectdagger.tumblr.com/post/147458034963/friday-im-in-love-it-has-a-pattern-harry-has) :)


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